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HISTOEIOAL SKETCH 



Synod of Philadelphia. 



By E. M.^ATTEESOlSr, 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA ; 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

OF 

iistmgKi§|tJj P^mko of t|e Sg'wlf at ^\ihM^\m, 

By the Rev. ROBERT DAVIDSON, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PEESBYTERTAN BOAED OF PUBLICATION, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 



f^ 



61 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers^ Philada. 



ACTION OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 



The following citations from the minutes of the 
Synod of Philadelphia will show the circumstances 
under which the papers embraced in this volume 
were prepared and are published : 

Saturday, October 17, 1874. 
The committee on centennial exercises presented 
the following report, which was accepted and 
adopted : 

The committee appointed to consider and report upon the 
question of centennial exercises during the sessions of Synod 
the coming year begs leave to recommend as follows : 

1. That the afternoon following the organization of the Synod 
be spent in services commemorative of God^s providential deal- 
ings wdtli this body during the last century, the particular order 
of these services to be arranged by the committee on devotional 
exercises. 

2. That these exercises consist of the reading of appropriate 
scriptures, of prayer and praise, the reading of the papers 
specified below, and voluntary addresses by members of the 
Synod. 

3. That the Kev. E. M. Patterson be appointed to present a 
brief historical sketch of the Synod during the past century. 

4. That the Eev. Eobert Davidson, D. D., be appointed to 
present brief biographical sketches of distinguished members 
of this Synod who have lived and died during the same period. 

3 



4 ACTION OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 

In pursuance of this action, the discourses here 
given were delivered to the Synod in session at 
Pittston, Pa., on October 22, 1875, and the follow- 
ing minute was adopted : 

Saturday, October 23, 1875. 
Resolved, That the thanks of the Synod be ten- 
dered to Messrs. Davidson and Patterson for the 
interesting and able centennial papers read by them 
yesterday, and that copies of the same be requested 
for publication. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 



By E. M. PATTEESON, 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH PEESBTTEEIAN CHUECH, PHILADELPHIA, 



HISTOEICAL SKETCH 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 



THE history of the Presbyterian Churchy as an 
organism of congregations, in the United States 
of America, commences with the year 1705 or 
1706; when seven ministers who were laboring as 
pastors and missionaries in Maryland, Delaware, 
and Philadelphia with the country surrounding it 
in Pennsylvania and jSTew Jersey, associated them- 
selves together as a presbytery."^ 

^ The seven pioneers of American Presbyterianism were 
Francis Makemie, Samuel Davis, John Wilson, Jedediali 
Andrews, Nathaniel Taylor, George McNish and Jolin Hamp- 
ton. The Synod of Philadelphia, as constitnted in 1788, cov- 
ered the fields in which they had all labored, so that in our 
history they really belong to this body. It is well known that 
the first leaf of the minutes of the Presbytery has been lost. 
The particulars of the organization are, therefore, unknown. 
But at a meeting on October 27, 1706, for the examination and 
ordination of Mr. John Boyd, Messrs. Makemie, Andrews and 
Hampton were present, and Mr. Makemie was moderator. At 
the first regular meeting about which we have certain infor- 
mation, and which commenced March 22, 1707, Messrs. Wilson, 

7 



8 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

The General Presbytery^ thus constituted^ con- 
tinued in form and name until 1716^ when it re- 
solved itself into a Synod^ and divided into three 
subordinate meetings or Presbyteries."^ The body 

Andrews, Taylor and McNisli were present, with four elders, 
Joseph Yard, Y/illiam Smith, John Gardner and James Stod- 
dard. Mr. Wilson was chosen moderator and Mr. McNish 
clerk. Of course the names of these first recorded members 
and officers of the Presbytery, to which our Synod was the 
territorial successor, should be embalmed in any sketch of 
the Synod. It ought to be added that particular congrega- 
tions had been in existence for some time. " The early history 
of the Presbyterian Church in this country is involved in no 
little obscurity, ov/ing principally to the fact that those who 
originally composed it, instead of forming a compact commu- 
nity, were widely scattered throughout the different colonies. 
It is evident, however, that several churches were established 
some time before the close of the seventeenth century. In Ma- 
ryland there were the churches of Rehoboth, Snow Hill, Upper 
Marlborouojh, Monokin and Wicomico, the first mentioned of 
which is commonly considered the oldest, and was probably 
formed several years before 1690. The church on Elizabeth 
River, in Virginia, is supposed by some to date back to nearly 
the same period, but the exact time of its origin cannot be as- 
certained. The churches in Freehold and Woodbridge, N. J., 
were constituted in 1692, and the first church in Philadelphia, 
as nearly as can be ascertained, in 1698. In New Castle, Del., 
in Charleston, S. C, and in some other places, Presbyterian 
churches were planted at a very early period." — Dr. Sprague^s 
Annals of the American Pulpit, iii. xi. 

^ The resolution of 1716 provided for four Presbyteries — Phil- 
adelphia, New Castle, Snow Hill and Long Island ; but Snow 
Hill was never organized. "The Presbytery of Long Island 
embraced the province of New York ; Philadelphia Presbytery 
covered East and West Jersey and so much of Pennsylvania as 
lay north of the great valley. All the other churches belonged 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 9 

under its new designation met September 17^ 171 7. 
The Rev. Jedediah x4.ndrews was its first moderator, 
and the Rev. Robert Wotherspoon its first clerk. 

The number of ministers in the organization had 
increased to seventeen, of whom thirteen, with six 
ruling elders, were present at the constitution of 
the body. The territory occupied by them ex- 
tended along the Atlantic slope from Long Island 
to Virginia, 

The Synod grew slowly in numbers and extent. 
After an existence of seventy-two years, during 
which it was in 1745 unhappily divided into two 
rival bodies, but happily reunited in 1758 as the 
Synod of New York and Philadelphia — blessed by 
the great revival of the last century and injured by 
the dissensions that marred the movement; battered 
by the storm of the Revolution, but coming out of 
it crowned with honor — it transformed itself in 
1788 into a General Assembly, and constituted the 
four subordinate Synods of New York and New" 
Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia and the Carolinas. 

A hundred years ago, therefore, the Synod of 
Philadelphia, in the position which it occupies in 
our fully-developed ecclesiastical system, did not 
exist. When the Revolutionary war broke out, 
there was in the country the one General Synod of 

to New Castle Presbytery, the project of forming the ministers 
on the peninsula between the Delaware and the Chesapeake 
into the Presbytery of Snow Hill having failed." — Websfer^s 
History of the Presbyterian Church in America, p. 95. 



10 HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

New York and Philadelphia^ with its eleven sub- 
ordinate Presbyteries of New York^ New Bruns- 
wick, Philadelphia First, Philadelphia Second, New 
Castle, Donegal, Lewes, Hanover, Orange, Dutchess 
and Suffolk. The number of cono;rea:ations and 
communicants who were under the care of those 
Presbyteries cannot be given. They had about 
one hundred and thirty-five ministerial members. 
Yerily, the colonists who were precipitated into 
the weary and harassing eight years' contest were 
but sparingly provided with spiritual leaders. 
From Massachusetts to the Carolinas, among three 
millions of people, there were scattered not many 
more Presbyterian preachers than now dwell in the 
midst of the seven or eight hundred thousand in- 
habitants of the city of Philadelphia. If our 
country were to-day supplied only in the same 
proportion as the struggling colonies vrere, it would 
have less than two thousand Presbyterian minis- 
ters, instead of the five thousand seven hundred 
who are upon the denominational rolls North 
and South, which were one and ought to be one 
again. 

The numerical force of the whole body in 1788, 
Avlien its various organizations were developed into 
their present form and relation, was sixteen Presby- 
teries, one hundred and seventy-seven ministers, one 
hundred and eleven probationers and four hundred 
and nineteen congregations, of which two hundred 
and four, or nearly one-half, were destitute of pas- 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 11 

tors, and many of them were only the shadow of a 
name.* 

Of this force the Synod of Philadelphia had un- 
der its jurisdiction, at its organization, sixty-seven 
ministers, two probationers and one hundred and 
thirty-one congregations, forty of which were desti- 
tute of pastors, while a large proportion of the others 
were associated as collegiate charges. It embraced 
five of the Presbyteries : Philadelphia, with thirteen 
ministers and twenty-one congregations ; New Cas- 
tle, with sixteen ministers and twenty-four congre- 
gations; Lewes, with six ministers and nineteen 
congregations; Baltimore, with six ministers and 
twelve congregations ; and Carlisle, with twenty-six 
ministers and fifty-five congregations. It covered 
the State of Pennsylvania east of the Allegheny 
Mountains, the southern part of New Jersey, Del- 
aware, Maryland, and a small slice of Virginia. 

The first meeting of the Synod was held in the 
First church, Philadelphia, on the third Wednes- 
day, the 15th of October, 1788. Only sixteen min- 
isters and seven ruling elders were present. The 
Rev. John Ewing, pastor of the First church and 
provost of the University of Pennsylvania, preached 
the opening sermon from 2 Cor. iv. 5. The Rev. 

^ That was the array of our denomination in 1788, the year 
in which our national government was formed. Place side by 
side with these figures the reports which show the present 
strength of the Presbyterian Church North and South: 241 
Presbyteries, 6394 ministers and licentiates, and 6796 congre- 
gations, with their 613,368 communicants. 



12 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

James Sproat^ pastor of the Second church, Phila- 
delphia, was chosen moderator; and the Rev. George 
DuiSeld, pastor of the Third church, was appointed 
stated clerk. The first treasurer of the body was 
Isaac Snowden, who was elected in 1789. 

The closing decade of the last century and the 
opening decade of the present century did not Avit- 
ness any decided advance of our forces. In 1807 ^ 
there w^ere in the whole Synod eighty-one ministers, 
one hundred and twenty-eight congregations, seven 
licentiates, and five thousand six hundred and fifty- 
two communicants, and the reported benevolent 
contributions were $1412. f Thus in the nineteen 
years j that followed the organization of the body 
there was a gain of only fourteen ministers and a 
loss of three congregations. 

It took the country a long time to recover from 
the desolating influence of the Revolutionary war. 
The churches especially had been in every w^ay in- 
jured by it; and the Presbyterian pastors and edi- 
fices had been assailed with peculiar venom by the 
royalists. ^^ It was a great object with the British 
officers to silence Presbyterian preachers as far as 
possible, and with this view they frequently des- 

■^ That was the first year in which every Presbytery made a 
report to the Synod, and also the first in which the number of 
communicants was included in the returns. 

f The sums reported for similar objects in 1788 had been 
£79 12s. 3d. 

J I cannot give the statement for the exact twenty years, be- 
cause in 1808 the reports were not complete. 



OP THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 13 

patched parties of light horse into the country to 
surprise and take prisoners unsuspecting clergy- 
men/^ "^ Infidelity, too, through the French asso- 
ciations of the government, had become fashion- 
able, and was blighting in its influence on the 
country. Moreover, the tide of emigration was 
to the w^estern part of the State and to the re- 
gions west and south-west of it. The increase of 
population there, with the growth of the denomina- 
tion, led to the formation in 1802 of the Synods of 
Pittsburg and Kentucky. But the legitimate prog- 
ress in our portion of the vineyard was tempora- 
rily checked. The western and north-western sec- 
tion of the Synod was, however, a sharer in the 
growth; and therefore, in 1794, the Presbytery of 
Huntingdon was formed out of the Presbytery of 
Carlisle. Three years later, in 1811, the Presby- 
tery of Northumberland was also erected. 

The next decade was more favorable in its ex- 
liibition. In 1817 there were in the Synod one 
hundred and one ministers, ten licentiates, one hun- 
dred and si-xty-four churches and nine thousand one 
hundred and fifty-five communicants, whose reported 
collections for benevolent causes were $1532. This 
was an increase of one-fourth in the number of min- 
isters and congregations, and more than three-fifths 
in the rolls of communicants. 

In 1827 t one hundred and thirty-one ministers, 

^Futhey's '^History of the Upper Octorara Church," p. 75. 
f In that year the reports made to the Assembly embraced 



14 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

two hundred and six congregations and twenty 
thousand communicants were reported. In the 
course of the year^ one thousand one hundred and 
seventy-seven new communicants had been added 
to the churches^ and two hundred and thirty-one 
adults and one thousand six hundred and thirty- 
nine infants had been baptized. The moneys re- 
ported for benevolent objects amounted to $5082. 

In that decade the membership of the churches 
had more than doubled. 

Ten years more bring us to the threshold of our 
divided house. The Synod still covered substan- 
tially the same territory. The Presbyteries of 
Philadelphia Second, Philadelphia Third, and Wil- 
mington, appeared as some of the fruits of the di- 
visive controversy which was raging. But scarcely 
any solid growth was exhibited. On the rolls 
in 1837 were one hundred and eighty-two min- 
isters, two hundred and twenty-four congrega- 
tions and twenty thousand and sixteen commu- 
nicants — an increase in nine years of only fifty 
ministers, eighteen churches and sixteen commu- 
nicants. 

In this respect, though not in as great a degree, 
this section of the denomination exhibited the con- 
dition of the body at large. " The growth of the 
Presbyterian Church in this country has never been 

for the first time the additions to the communion rolls and the 
baptisms during the year. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 15 

more rapid than duriDg the first half '^ of the sep- 
tennate from 1830 to 1837. ^^In the preceding 
five years there had been an advance until then 
unprecedented ; but even this was exceeded by the 
results set forth in the Assembly's reports for some 
years subsequent to 1829. . . . But the rapid in- 
crease during the earlier portion of the period was 
largely oifset by an actual decrease of membership 
from 1834 to 1837.'^ * 

Internecine w^ar^ excited controversy^ unhappy 
personal alienations^ consumed much of the spirit- 
ual powder of the Church. Even a good man^ work- 
ing in a good cause, cannot^ while unduly excited, 
properly concentrate his powers and accomplish the 
largest results. Much more is an organized body 
of men whose counsels are disturbed by questions 
that affect its fundamental position crippled by an 
inherent weakness. In the Church of Christ peri- 
ods that have been marked by doctrinal and eccle- 
siastical conflicts, however necessary those conflicts 
may have been for the maintenance and develop- 
ment of the truth, have not been times of peculiar 
spirituality and saving growth. And on the field 
of this Synod were w^aged some of the sharpest 
struggles in a contest which none of us desire to 
reopen. 

The figures that I have given for 1837 indicate 
the strength of the Synod in the troublous days 

^ Dr. Gillett's "History." The total membership in the 
whole country in 1834 was 247,964; in 1836, only 219,126. 



16 HISTOKICAL SKETCH 

which preceded the division^ and the force which 
broke itself into two for a generation."^ 

A few temporary changes had been made in tlie 
constitution of the body. In 1823 the Presbytery 
of the District of Columbia was formed out of the 
Presbyteiy of Baltimore. In 1833 the Synod of 
the Chesapeake was constituted partially out of 
this Synod, embracing the Presbyteries of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, Baltimore and East Hanover; 
but it was dissolved in the following year. In 
1834 the Second Philadelphia, Wilmington and 
Lewes Presbyteries were erected into the Synod of 
Delaware; but it also was dissolved in 1835, and 
its Presbyteries reannexed to this Synod. 

In 1838, as one of the movements resulting from 
the division of the Church, the ministers and con- 
gregations belonging to the Presbyteries of Wil- 
mington, Lewes, Philadelphia Second, Philadelphia 
Third, Carlisle, Huntingdon and Northumberland, 
adhering to the so-called New School branch, were 
set off from the Synod of Philadelphia and consti- 
tuted as the Synod of Pennsylvania. It met in the 
Eleventh church, Philadelphia, on the 11th of July, 
1838, and was opened with a sermon by the Rev. 
E. W. Gilbert, who was also chosen moderator. 
The Eev. John L. Grant was elected its stated 
clerk, and the Pev. Robert Adair permanent clerk. 
Its constitution, however, was afterward changed 

"^ No complete reports were made in the two years succeed- 
ing the disrupture. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. l7 

SO as to embrace the Presbyteries of Wilmington, 
Lewes, Philadelphia Second, Harrisburg, Pittsburg 
and Erie. 

The strength of this organization, when first re- 
ported in 1840, was seventy-five ministers, eighty- 
seven congregations and nine thousand seven hun- 
dred and seven communicants.* 

The same year the membership of the Synod of 
Philadelphia was one hundred and fifty-seven min- 
isters, one hundred and ninety-eight congregations 
and seventeen thousand three hundred and thirty- 
seven communicants. 

The new Synod of Pennsylvania, it will be ob- 
served, extended beyond the limits of the Synod of 
Philadelphia, crossing the Alleghenies and reacli- 
ing to the western border of the State. But in 
1843 the ministers and congregations in the Pres- 
byteries of Erie, Meadville and Pittsburg were de- 
tached from it and formed into the Synod of West 
Pennsylvania, the first meeting of which was or- 
dered to be held in Meadville, Crawford county, 
on the third Tuesday of October, and to be opened 
With a sermon by the Rev. D. H. Riddle. 

That withdrew from the Synod of Pennsylvania 
nineteen ministers, thirty-five congregations and two 
thousand three hundred and sixty-six communi- 
cants, and left in its bounds sixty-six ministers, 
sixty-eight churches and ten thousand eight hun-^ 
dred and eighty-nine communicants. 

^ There was, however, no return from Pittsburg Presbytery. 
2 



18 HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

After this offset the Synod of Pennsylvania of 
the one branch and the Synod of Philadelphia of 
the other were in their territorial extent substan- 
tially conterminous. 

But the latter body grew to be unwieldy^ and 
was materially chano^ed. 

Within its bounds the Presbytery of West Jersey 
was in 1839 formed out of the Presbytery of Phil- 
adelphia. In 1842 the Presbytery of Donegal was 
constructed out of the Presbytery of New Castle. * 
In 1850 the Presbytery of the Eastern Shore was 
set off from the Presbytery of Baltimore. Then^ in 
1854, the Synod of Baltimore was formed, largely 
out of the Synod of Philadelphia. It was composed 
of the ministers and congregations in the Presby- 
teries of Carlisle, Baltimore, and Eastern Shore, 
which had belonged to this Synod, and the Presby- 

^ There had been an older organization of that name in the 
Church. In 1732 the Presbytery of Bunagall was erected '^ in 
Lancaster county." It grew to be one of the most important 
and pronounced powers in the denomination, and continued 
until 1786, when, in the division of Presbyteries that was made 
as a preparation for the creation of the A^^sembly, it was broken 
into the two Presbyteries of Baltimore and Carlisle. As the 
latter was appointed to meet on the day to which the old Pres- 
bytery had adjourned, it would be considered as the legal snc- 
cessor of the ancient organization. In 1842 the old name was 
restored to the roll, though the body to which it was attached 
was carved out of a Presbytery that covered a different field. 
In the reconstruction of Presbyteries after the reunion in 1870 
it again disappeared, the Presbytery of Westminster being con- 
stituted its legal successor. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 19 

tery of Winchester^ from the Synod of Virginia. 
It took away from this Synod seventy-one minis- 
ters^ eighty-four congregations and seven thousand 
eight hundred and forty-four communicants, leav- 
ing on our roll six Presbyteries^ one hundred and 
sixty-three ministers, one hundred and eighty-two 
churches and tw^enty-five thousand three hundred 
and forty-two communicants. 

The two Synods of Philadelphia and Pennsylva- 
nia continued without any further lessening of their 
territory during the rest of the days of their sepa- 
ration. In 1870, the year of the reunion, the latter 
reported five Presbyteries (the District of Colum- 
bia, Harrisburg, Philadelphia Third, Philadelphia 
Fourth and Wilmington), one hundred and eighteen 
ministers, ninety-six churches and seventeen thou- 
sand nine hundred and thirty-four communicants; 
and the former, eight Presbyteries (Donegal, Hunt- 
ingdon, New Castle, Philadelphia, Philadelphia 
Central, Philadelphia Second and Shanghai), two 
hundred and forty-four ministers, three hundred 
and twenty churches and thirty-two thousand three 
hundred and ninety-eight communicants. 

The reunited Assembly reconstructed its Synods 
and Presbyteries almost invariably by State and 
county lines. Blending together the main portions 
of the Synods of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, it 
reconstituted them in the present Synod of Phila- 
delphia as their legal successor, but limited it in 
territory to the eastern quarter of the State of Penn- 



20 HISTOEICAL SKETCH 

■sylvania^ so as to embrace, the ministers and con- 
gregations In the counties of Bradford^ Sullivan^ 
Luzerne^ Schuylkill^ Lebanon, York, Wayne, Pike,* 
Monroe, Xorthampton, Lehigh, Bucks, ]Nrontgom- 
ery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia. To it 
Ayas also attached the missionary Presbytery of West- 
ern Africa. 

Til is detached the important portions of the old 
Synods tliat were embraced in the Presbyteries of 
the District of Columbia, Harrisburg, Wilmington, 
Hunti]igdon and New Castle, and placed them, 
with sevei'al churches in New Jersey that hr^d been 
connected with the Philadelphia Presbytev'ss, in 
the reconstructed Synods of Harrisburg, Baltimore 
and New Jersey. On the other hand, it included 
the ministers and churches in the north-ciistern 
portion of Pennsylyania, which in the Presl)yteries 
of Montrose, Susquehianna, Luzerne and Newton 
had been in the old Synods of Nev>^ Jersey, and of 
New Yoriv and New Jersey. 

Our Synod, thus materially altered in its bounds 
and modified in its membership, met for the first 
time in the Spring Garden church, Philadelphia, 
on thiC 21st of June, 1870, and was opened with a 
sermon by the Rev. Calvin W. Stewart on Matt. 
xxviii. 19. The Rev. Elias J. Richards was chosen 
moderator, the Rev. W. E. Moore stated ck rk, tlie 

'•• Exr-cpt t!ic Mil ford Ci'.urcli, on (lie Delaware, wliic'i was on 
s;;Gcial request connected with the PrtsbytLTv of IluJson, Syn- 
od of New York. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 21 

Rev. W. M. Rice permanent clerk^ and the Hon. 
J. Ross Snowden treasurer.* 

That meeting in June Avas held under the order 
of the Assembly, merely to reconstruct the Pres- 
byteries and to organize the body for its future 
operations. Having performed these duties^f it 

^ Mr. Moore having afterward removed from the bounds of 
the Synod, the Rev. W. M. Rice was chosen stated clerk and 
the Rev. B. B. Hotchkin permanent clerk. They still hold 
those offices. 

f The following is the text of the act reconstructing the 
Presbyteries : 

ACT CONSTITUTING THE PRESBYTERIES OF THE 
SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 

In the Synod of Philadelphia, as constituted by the General 
Assembly of 1870, viz.: "The Synod of Philadelphia is hereby 
constituted to consist of the Presbyteries and parts of Presby- 
teries included in the district between the eastern line of Penn- 
sylvania and "the western lines of the counties of Bradford, 
Sullivan, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Lebanon and York; and to it 
is also attached the Presbytery of Western Africa, to meet on 
the 21st day of June, 1870, at 8 p. m., in Spring Garden church, 
Philadelphia, and to be opened with a sermon by the Rev. C. 

W. Stewart, or in his absence by . And the Synod of 

Philadelphia is hereby declared to be the legal successor of 
the Synods of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, and, as such, 
entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all tlie rights and 
franchises, and liable for the perforn^.ance of all the duties, of 
tho^^e Synods" — in session at Philadelphia, June 21, 1870, it 
was 

liesolved, That in accordance with the instructions of the 
General Assembly, the following Presbyteries be and are 
hereby formed out of the ministers and churches constituting 
the Synod : 

1. The Presbytery of Philaddphia South is hereby constituted 



22 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

adjourned to meet in the First church of Scranton^ 
on Tuesday^ October 18^ 1870, when the Kev. James 
W. Dale was chosen moderator. 

The first reported strength of the Synod, in its 
new form, w^as made in 1871. It had then eight 

to consist of the ministers and clmrches in tlie city and county 
of Philadelphia south of the centre of Market street, and be- 
tween the Delaware River and the western line of the city ; to 
meet in the Spring Garden church on the 23d day of June, 
1870, immediately after the adjournment of Synod ; the Rev. 
Z. M. Humplirey, D. T>., or in his absence the oldest minister 
present, to preside until a moderator is chosen. And the Pres- 
bytery of Pliiladelphia South is hereby declared to be the 
legal successor of the Presbyteries of Philadelphia and Phila- 
delphia Fourth, and, as such, entitled to the possession of all 
the rights and franchises, and liable for the performance of all 
the duties, of those Presbyteries. [The word south was at the 
next meeting stricken from the title of this Presbytery.] 

2. The Presbytery of Philadelphia Central is hereby constituted 
to consist of the ministers and churches in the city and county 
of Philadelphia between the centre of Market street and the 
centre of Allegheny avenue and the Delaware River and the 
western line of the city; to meet in the Spring Garden church 
on the 23d of June, 1870, immediately after the adjournment 
of the Sj^nod ; the Rev. George W. Musgrave, D. D., or in his 
absence the oldest minister present, to preside until a moderator 
is chosen. And the Presbytery of Philadelphia Central is hereby 
declared to be the legal successor of the Central Presbytery of 
Philadelphia and of ihePresbytery of Philadelphia Third, and, 
as such, is entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all the 
rights and franchises, and liable to the performance of all the 
duties, of those Presbyteries. 

3. The Presbytery of Philadelphia North is hereby constituted 
to consist of the ministers and churches in the counties of Bucks 
and Montgomery, and in the city and county of Philadelphia 
north of the centre of Allegheny avenue; to meet at 8J a.m., 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 23 

Presbyteries, three hundred ministers, twenty licen- 
tiates, fifty-three candidates for the ministry, two 
hundred and sixty-one churches and forty thousand 

oil the 23d of June, 1870, in the Spring Garden church ; the 
Rev. S. T. Lowrie, or in his absence tlie oldest minister pres- 
ent, to preside until a moderator is chosen. And the Presbytery 
of Philadelphia North is hereby declared to be the legal suc- 
cessor of the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and, as such, 
entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all the rights and 
franchises, and liable to the performance of all the duties, of 
that Presbytery. 

4. The Presbytery of Chester is hereby constituted to consist 
of tlie ministers and churches in the counties of Chester and 
Delaware ; to meet in the Spring Garden church at 8 J A. M., 
June 23, 1870 ; the Rev. B. B. Hotchkin, or in his absence 
the oldest minister present, to preside until a moderator is 
chosen. And tlie Presbytery of Chester is hereby declared to 
be the legal successor of the Presbytery of jN^ew Castle, and, as 
such, entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all the rights 
and franchises, and liable to the performance of all the duties, 
of that Presbytery. 

5. The Presbytery of Westminster is hereby constituted to con- 
sist of the ministers and churches in the counties of York, Lan- 
caster and Lebanon ; to meet in the Spring Garden church at 
^ A. M., June 23, 1870; the Rev. C. W. Stewart, or in his 
absence the oldest minister present, to preside until a modera- 
tor is chosen. And the Presbytery of Westminster is hereby 
dechired to be the legal successor of the Presbytery of Donegal, 
and, as such, entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all the 
rights and franchises, and liable to the performance of all the 
duties, of that Presbytery. 

6. The Presbytery of Lehigh is hereby constituted to consist 
of the ministers and churches in the counties of Berks, Lehigh, 
Northampton, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill and that part of 
Luzerne south of the Wilkesbarre Mountain ; to meet in tlie 
Spring Garden church at 8^^ A. m., June 23, 1870; the Rev. 



24 HISTOKICAL SKETCH 

two hundred and ten communicants. Its Sabbath- 
sdiools numbered forty-nine thousand three hun- 
dred and sixty members. The additions to the 
communion rolls during the year had been^ on 
examination and profession, two thousand six hun- 
dred and sixty-six, and on certificate one thousand 
six hundred and seventy-six. The baptisms had 
been, of adults, seven hundred and thirty-seven, and 
of infants one thousand seven hundred and forty- 
one. The moneys raised for congregational pur- 
poses amounted to $652,421, and for benevolent 
causes $310,703, or $963,124 in all. 

To complete the exhibit, I should add that tlie 
latest reports, those made to the Assembly through 
the Presbyteries last April, sum up as follows : 
three hundred and fifty-six ministers, nineteen 
licentiates, fifty-eight candidates, two hundred and 
eighty-eight churches, three thousand two hundred 

J. K. Eckard, D. D., or in his absence the oldest minister 
present, to preside nntil a moderator is chosen. 

7. The Presbytery of Lackawanna is hereby constituted to 
consist of the ministers and churches within the counties of 
Bradford, Susquehanna, Sullivan, Wayne, Wyoming, Pike and 
that part of Luzerne north of the Wilkesbarre Mountain ; to 
meet in the Spring Garden church on the 23d of June, 1870, 
immediately after the adjournment of Synod ; the oldest min- 
ister present to preside until a moderator is chosen. And it is 
liereby declared that the Presbytery of Lackawanna is the legal 
successor of the Presbyteries of Luzerne, Montrose and Sus- 
quehanna, and, as such, is entitled to the possession and enjoy- 
ment of all the rights and franchises, and liable to the per- 
formance of all the duties, of those Presbyteries. 



OF THE SYKOB OF PHILADELPHIA. 25 

and two additions on examination, and one thou- 
sand five hundred and seven on certificate, fifty- 
four thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven com- 
municants, eight hundred and eighty adult and 
one thousand eight hundred and ffty-six infant 
baptisms, fifty-seven thousand three hundred and 
forty-two Sabbath-school members, and contribli- 
tions of $1,069,155, of which $724,200 were for 
congregational and $344,955 for benevolent causes. 

These are the main facts in reference to the for- 
mation of the Synod, the changes that have been 
made from time to time in its constitution, and its 
strength at important eras in its history. A turn 
in the kaleidoscope will exhibit some of these facts 
in new combinations and bring up others that will 
give a clearer idea of the progress of the Church. 

The General Presbytery, formed in 1706, and che 
Synod of Philadelphia, as constituted in 1788, were 
almost conterminous geographically; and the gen- 
eral history of the denomination in our country is, in 
its com'i:iencement, the history of this body. But in 
its increase and development the Synod has, as we 
have seen, thrown ofr* from time to time important 
portions of its territory and large elements of its 
strengtli in the formation of co-ordinate Syncds. 
A comparison of the reported figures of the Chu::cli 
in that territory at prominent eras of its history will 
show the growth with which it has been favored. 

In that territory there were in 1706 seven min- 
isters and probably nine congregations; in 1788, 



26 HiSToracAL sketch 

sixty-seven ministers and one hundred and thirty- 
one congregations; in 1807. eighty-one ministers^ 
one hundred and twenty-eight congregations and 
five thousand six hundred and fifty-two communi- 
cants; in 1836, one hundred and eighty-two minis- 
ters, two lumdred and twenty-four churches and 
twenty thousand and sixteen communicants ; and 
hist April, in the fifteen Presbyteries which now 
spread through it, there were six hundred and 
seventy-two ministers, six hundred and thirty-two 
churches and eighty-eight thousand six hundred 
and ninety-five communicants. 

Thus, notwitlistanding the immense sweep which 
the population of the country has taken from the 
narrow Atlantic slope down to the Gulf of Mexico, 
around to the Pacific, up to the great kikes and across 
the Rocky Mountains, and notwithstanding the 
steady missionary extension of the Church through 
the regions beyond its narrow confines in 1788, so 
firm has been the hold of the denomination on the 
comparatively small section of the country w^hich 
w^as dotted by the congregations under the care of 
the Synod that about one-seventh of the strength 
of the whole Church, North and South, is found to- 
day in the geographical bounds of this organization 
as originally constituted. 

If we confine our attention to the part of the 
territory to which the Synod is now restricted, we 
shall find that the increase has been even more 
favorable. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 27 

Of the seven ministers who constituted the Gen- 
eral Presbytery in 1707^ only the Rev. Jedediah 
Andrews^ with his church, the First Philadelphia, 
was in our present synodical bounds. 

In 1717, of the seventeen ministers who were in 
the General Synod, only two v\^ere in this territory, 
the Rev. Mr. Andrews, with his church, and the 
Rev. Malachi Jones, at Abington, Montgomery 
county ; while the Great Valley church, Chester 
county, and the Neshaminy church, Bucks county, 
were destitute of pastors ; two ministers, therefore, 
and four churches.* 

In 1788, of the sixty-seven ministers and one 
hundred and thirty-one congregations which were 
constituted into the Synod, eighteen ministers and 
twenty-seven congregations were in this territory. 
They vv^ere as follows : In the Presbytery of Phila- 
delphia, the Rev. James Sproat and the Rev. Ash- 
bel Green, pastors of the Second church, Philadel- 
phia ; George Duflfield, of the Third church ; John 
Ewing, of the First church ; John Simonton, of 
the Great Valley church, Chester county ; Francis 
Peppard, of the Allen Township church; James 
Boyd, Newton and Bensalem; William M. Tennent, 
Abington, Norrington and Providence; Nathaniel 
Irwin, Neshaminy; James Grier, Deep Run. Pres- 

^ Lest any one remember and be misled by the statement of 
the Presbytery to the Presbytery of Dublin in 1710 that there 
were then five churches in Pennsylvania, it should be noted 
that Pennsylvania then included what is now the State of Del- 
aware. 



28 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

bytery of New Castle: the Eev. Robert Smith, 
pastor of the Pequea church ; Colin McFarquhar, 
Donegal ; James Latta^ Chestnut Level ; Alexan- 
der Mitchell, Upper Oetorara and Doe Run; James 
Anderson, Middletown, Chester county; Nathaniel 
W. Semple, Leacock, Lancaster and Middle Oeto- 
rara; John E. Finley, Fagg's Manor; Xathan 
Grier, Forks of Brandy wine. Vacant churches : 
in Philadelphia Presbytery, Tinicum and Penn's 
Neck ; in New Castle Presbytery, New London and 
Little Britain ; in Carlisle Presbytery, York Town."^ 

In 1836, of the one hundred and ei^htv-two 
ministers, two hundred and twenty-four congre- 
gations and twenty thousand and sixteen commu- 
nicants which w^ere embraced in the Synod, one 
hundred and sixteen ministers, one hundred and 
twenty-nine congregations and ten thousand nine 
hundred and ninety-five communicants were in 
our present bounds. 

in 1870, when the Synod was reconstituted with 
its existing boundaries, it contained three hundred 
and sixteen ministers, two hundred and sixty-two 
chi'rches and thirty-nine thousand five hundred 
and. six communicants. 

It now numbers three hundred and fifty-six 
ministers, two hundred and eighty-eight churches 
and forty-five thousand seven hundred and thirty- 
seven communicants. 

"''■ The churches of Tinicum and Pcrin'jr' Neck are, I believe 
the only ones that have died out. 



OF THE SY^^OD OF PHILADELPHIA. 29 

Thus the absolute increase has been large. 
More gratifying still has been the proportionate 
growth. 

In 1836 the population of the counties which are 
now covered by the Synod was about eight hundred 
thousand."^ Our communicants numbered ten thou- 
sand nine hundred and ninety-five. In 1870 the 
general population of the counties was one million 
four hundred and sixty thousand four hundred 
and ninety-four; our communicants were thirty- 
nine thousand five hundred and six. The popula- 
tion has not doubled. It is now only about three- 
fourths greater than it was in 1836. Our com- 
munion rolls are nearly three and three-fourths 
larger than they were then. The advance of the 
general population is seventy-five per cent. ; that 
of the Churchy three hundred and seventy-five per 
cent. In one generation the proportionate numer- 
ical growth of the Synod has been five times 
greater than that of the State.f 

■^ In 1830 it was six hundred and ninety-fonr thousand and 
eighty ; and ir. 1840, eight hundred and eighty-six thousand 
seven hundred and twenty. 

f I draw the comparison with 1870 because v/e have no 
censr.s returns later than that, and I wish to make positi/e 
statements rather than estimates. The other year embraced is 
3836. I select that because then, for the first time, tlie mem- 
bership of the individual churches was published. Before 
that, from 1807, the Presliyteries forwarded to the Assembly 
only the gross number of members in their bounds, without 
specifying the number in each church. Of course, as the 
Presbyterial boundaries were not limited by the present 



30 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

This comparison of communicants cannot be car- 
ried back to the organization of the Sjnocl. But 
another comparison with that period can be made 
which is equally suggestive. In 1790 the general 
population of the counties was two hundred and 
seventj-three thousand nine hundred and eight; the 
Synod had been ushered into existence vv^ith eighteen 
ministers and twenty-seven congregations in those 
counties. In 1870 the population was one million 
four hundred and sixty thousand four hundred and 
ninety-one; our ministers three hundred and thir- 
teen^ and congregations two hundred and sixty-two. 
The population now is^ therefore^ a little more than 
five times v»diat it was in 1788, while our ministers 
are seventeen times and our congregations are nearly 
ten times more numerous. Relatively, therefore, 

synodical lines, the figures conld be obtained only from the 
separate ses.^ional records. The work of securing them would 
be tedious, even if possible. But, in fact, it was not for a long 
time the rule to keep sessional records. The meetings of ses- 
sions in the last century were often informal gatherings. On 
the communion morning the pastor and elders would meet on 
the lawn at the side of their edifice, and beneath heaven's blue 
vault receive applicants for admission to the Lord's Table, and 
make no record of the fact, though the pastor would keep the 
total number of members that were under his care, and could 
mention that to Presbytery. Moreover, minutes, when kept, 
were not always taken up to the higher court. The statement 
will sound strange to Presbyterians of to-day that as late as 
1824 the First church, Philadelphia, and the Great Valley 
church, Chester county, submitted no sessional records to their 
Presbytery, and were excused on the ground of conscientious 
scruples against the practice. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 31 

the people are now twiee as well provided with 
Presbyterian churches^ and three times as well pro- 
vided with those who do the work of the ministry 
in them^ as they were at the commencement of the 
Synod's history ; and when we are reminded that 
the edifices of to-day, and the congregations of com- 
municants worshiping in them^ are much larger 
than those of eighty years ago, we shall feel con- 
vinced that the number of members has propor- 
tionally advanced much beyond that of the con- 
gregations and ministers ; so that^ instead of the 
general population outstripping the churches^ and 
the churches less and less providing for the people 
and drawing from the world, the churches are gain- 
ing, not as rapidly, indeed, as we should desire, but 
still gaining decidedly on the population, and leav- 
ening it with the influences of the gospel in a con- 
stantly increasing measure. 

The development of the grace of liberality in the 
churches has been in a greater degree than that of 
their numerical strength. 

The five thousand six hundred and fifty-two 
communicants in the Synod of 1807 contributed 
through their sessions |1412 for benevolent objects. 
For similar causes the forty-five thousand seven 
hundred and thirty-seven communicants in our 
churches last year contributed $344,955. 

A membership eight times larger contributed 
tw^o hundred and forty-four times more money. 
The growth in the money columns is more than 



32 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

thirty times greater than that of the membership 
column."^ 

Are the members of our churches^ as a mass^ 
thirty times wealthier than they were seventy years 
ago? With the enormously advanced cost of liv- 
ing, which must be considered as an offset to the 
increase of income^ of wages and of salary, are 
they, in fact, any richer at all ? Do not tlie figures 
show that there has been a development of the 
grace of liberality, for which, as produced by God, 
we should glorify him ? 

Our American historian has declared that ^^ a rich- 
ly endowed church always leans to Arminianism and 
justification by works/'f Statements should not be 
made and appeals should not be published which, 
forgetting the struggle for life that the ma-:ses are 
compelled to wage, and censuring the poor as well 
as the rich, tend to make the impression that a de- 
nomination whose peculiarity is its Calvinism, which 
magnifies justification by faith, and vrhose endow- 
ment is found in the voluntary offering of its mem- 
bers, is running behind in the use of its endowment 
in the work of the Lord. The facts are tliat the 
Presbyterian Church is the most liberal of all the 
denominations, and that its congregations of to-day 
are in this grace far ahead of any preceding gene- 

■^'' The reports of 1807 are doubtless not as complete as those 
of 187o, but I suspect they embraced nearly all tliat wms worth 
reporting. 

t Bancroft's '' History of the United States," ix. 503. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 33 

ration. No one will contend that it has reached 
anything like the consecration of a tithe of its 
resources to God. But the way to continue its 
development in this line is gratefully to make prom- 
inent what has been accomplished^ rather than to 
overdraw the failure and fill the atmosphere of the 
Church with one monotonous moan. 

An indiscriminating optimism may soothe the 
conscience by too rose-colored statements^ but, after 
all, in the record of what God has done in and by 
his Church, optimism is more honoring to him than 
pessimism. 

The Synod whose rise and progress has thus 
been incompletely sketched is the largest of all the 
Synods out of the body of which our General As- 
sembly is constituted. 

Though I have not the full figures before me 
now, I think I am also safe in saying, from my 
recollection of an examination which I made some 
time ago, that it represents the largest and strongest 
religious denomination in the territory which it oc- 
cupies.* 

^ Some may question whether the papal organism, though 
not anything like as numerous as the Protestant denomina- 
tions combined, is not larger in numbers than our Presbyterian 
branch. The members of the hierarchy strive to make the 
impression, and I suspect it is commonly received, that its 
growth has been so overwhelming that it is now the strongest 
of any of the denominations, separately considered. From the 
official reports of its bishops, I am prepared to deny this. I 
have before me those that were published in their last year's 
3 



34 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Its growth has been of a steady and solid kind. 
This is due largely to the way in which it has cul- 
tivated revivals. Mention of powerful awakenings 
is frequently found in its annual narratives of the 
state of religion. They have^ from the first, been 

almanac. The counties which are covered by onr Synod com- 
pose the papal diocese of Philadelphia and parts of the dio- 
ceses of Harrisbnrg and Scranton. It is well known that their 
priests are largely clubbed together, two, three, and even more, 
in a parish, for thoroughness of work and for comfortable ease 
in the doing of it. They report ^'churches," "chapels" and 
"stations." The chapels are generally apartments in the 
churches, which are reported as such, and are thus included 
twice in the returns, or little places of worship in their schools, 
academies and theological seminaries ; while the stations are 
spots also really connected with the churches, and visited by 
the priests in some cases (I quote the reports) " monthly," in 
others "every six weeks," "every second month," "four times 
a year," "occasionally." The figures in our bounds are two 
hundred and sixty priests, regular and secular, and two hundred 
and forty churches — numbers that point very decidedly to a 
smaller array of adherents than are connected with our branch 
of the Presbyterian Church. 

It may be observed, in passing, that the same generalization 
will apply to the country at large. The Presbyterian is by no 
means the largest of the denominations in the nation. In the 
number of its communicants it stands third on the list. But 
the one branch of it to which we belong, in its Northern and 
Southern sections, is, in the number of its ministers and 
churches, far ahead of the papal hierarchy in the United 
States. 

Romanists seek, through the persistent array of the wildest 
claims, to carry by storm politicians, who always want to be on 
the strong side. Protestants should not hesitate to reveal their 
strength, so that political leaders, who look at votes more than 
at principles, cannot fail to be struck by it. 



OF THE SYXOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 35 

looked for. Perhaps, however, a sentence in a 
pastoral letter in 1816 expresses the predominant 
feeling of a very large proportion of the body: ^^If 
the thunder-storm in summer excites the most at- 
tention, it is the continued blessing from the clouds 
which replenishes the springs and makes glad the 
harvest of the husbandman/^ The General As- 
sembly of 1817, in passing a quasi censure on this 
utterance, expressed the hope that it was not in- 
tended as a condemnation of revivals. By those 
who wrote it the intention may have been to cen- 
sure some revival measures ; but certainly it does 
not necessarily convey a sweeping condemnation. 
I think it will be found that in this solid and 
substantial and constantly advancing portion of 
the Church, it has been the happy blending of 
revivals and awakenings with the weekly and 
ordinary culture of the field that has been the 
means of adding to the reports of conversions, 
and, in a laro;er deo:ree than amono; some others, 
holding on to those who have been drawn into the 
ranks of communicants. 

Much of the power and advance of this body 
has, under God, been due to the prominence which 
its ministers and people have always given to edu- 
cation. The unwavering friends of the public-school 
system of the State, from its establishment, they 
have always felt the necessity of providing a higher 
training for their children, and of leavening edu- 
cation, from the lowest to the highest steps of the 



36 HISTOBICAL SKETCH 

ladder^ with the influence of the gospel. Ahiiost 
invariably it will be found that our earlier pastors 
were teachers on the weekdays as well as preachers 
on the Sabbaths. From the first^ also, they labored 
to buihi up the higher institutions of learning. 
Perhaps it is not to the credit of our Synod that 
the University of Pennsylvania and Dickinson 
College, which were once largely under Presbyte- 
rian influence, have entirely passed away from it, 
and are controlled, actually or substantially, by other 
denominations. Doubtless an explanation of this 
will be found in the close connection that its mem- 
bers have always had with the College of New 
Jersey, which, it will be remembered, grew from 
a germ that had been planted in its bounds. 

It is gratifying to know that in the college at 
Easton, virtually under the control of this Synod, 
which has the power to confirm or reject all appoint- 
ments made by its board of management, we have 
an institution which, in its endowment, appliances 
and instructors, has taken its stand in the front 
rank of colleges;"^ and that, while the various 
evangelical denominations are represented in its 
faculty and among its students, it is so constituted 
that its Presbyterian character can be preserved. 

■^ The peculiar relation in which Lafayette College stands to 
the Synod will justify the following statement of its present 
condition : 

The catalogue for last year sliows an attendance of three 
hundred and nineteen students in the regular college classes, 



OF THE SYXOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 37 

Nor should it be forgotten that, in Lincohi Uni- 
versity, members of this Synod took one of the 

the freslimen class alone numbering one hundred and fifteen. 
The faculty of instruction consists of twenty-seven professors 
and tutors. Among the buildings recently erected is Pardee 
Hallj one of the finest college structures in America. It was 
erected by A. Pardee, Esq., of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, at a 
cost of more than a quarter million of dollars, and ^'consists 
of a centre building five stories in height, fifty-three feet front 
and eighty-six deep, and a lateral wing on each side of the 
centre building, measuring sixty-one feet in length and thirty- 
one in width, four stories in height, including a Mansard roof, 
the whole terminating in two cross wings forty-two feet front 
and eighty-four feet deep and four stories in height. The entire 
length of front, in a straight line, is two hundred and fifty-six 
feet. The material is the Trenton brownstone, with trimmings 
of light Ohio sandstone. It is heated throughout by steam, and 
lighted by gas. In determining what rooms were needed and 
the best arrangement of them, similar buildings in Europe, as 
well as in this country, were carefully studied, and liberal pro- 
vision has been made in all the departments of instruction for 
every aid which has been devised for the most thorough and 
attractive teaching, and also for the prosecution of original re- 
searches. — Catalogue, 1875. 

This noble structure was dedicated with appropriate ceremo- 
nies October 21, 1873, in the presence of the governor of 
Pennsylvania and other State ofiicials, and the Synod of Phila- 
delphia, which attended the exercises in a body. 

The college has secured a reputation not only in this coun- 
try, but in Europe, especially for its Anglo-Saxon and the 
philological study of the English. The "London Athenaeum" 
recently said : " The studies of a philological character carried 
on in Lafayette College are not surpassed in thoroughness by 
those which we are accustomed to associate with German uni- 
versities." The ''British Quarterly Eeview" (October, 1870), 
referring to the same philological studies, says : " Nowhere else 



38 HISTORICAL. SKETCH 

first pronounced steps toward tlie preparation of 
suitable teachers and preachers for the colored race 
of this country and Africa. 

The patriotism of our American Church has 
never been blurred by its adherents or aspersed by 
otliers. As the centennial year of our national in- 
dependence approaches^ Presbyterians are not com- 
pelled with backward step to cover the nakedness 
of any of their ecclesiastical ancestors. In the 
times of the Revolution ^^a Presbyterian royalist 
was a thing unheard of/^ confesses an American 
Episcopal writer. Verily, the Presbyterian who 
had any acquaintance with the political principles 
of liis system and with the treatment that the 
adherents of his Church had received from British 
royalty, and who in the contest which tyranny was 
waging with the colonists could have been a ^^ roy- 
alist/^ would have been a ^^thing.^^ The mass of 
the early Presbyterians had been driven hither by 
persecution, and here, in every colony but Pennsyl- 
vania, they were met by opposition. The persist- 
ent blindness of their opponents united with the 
essential republican principles of their own system 

is the subject treated with equal competence and success.'^ An 
interesting feature of the curriculum is the ''Douglass Course" 
of Christian Greek and Latin. Text-books and teaching have 
been provided in both these languages co-extensive with the 
old classical course composed of heathen authors, and the stu- 
dent can take his choice of either course, devoting the usual 
time to the philological study of Greek and Latin, if he pre- 
fers, without using any of the heathen writers as text-books. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 39 

to make them the stern and uncompromising sup- 
porters of American freedom. 

The Synod of 1775^ meeting shortly after the 
battle of Lexington, issued a pastoral letter to the 
churches under its care, and in it sent forth these 
two ringing sentences : '' Be careful to maintain the 
union which at present subsists through all the col- 
onies; nothing can be more manifest than that the 
success of every measure depends on its being in- 
violably preserved, and therefore we hope that you 
will leave nothing undone which can promote that 
end. In particular, as the Continental Congress 
now sitting at Philadelphia consists of delegates 
chosen in the most free and unbiased manner by 
the body of the people, let them not only be treated 
with respect and encouraged in their difficult service, 
not only let your prayers be offered up to God for 
his direction in their proceedings, but adhere firmly 
to their resolutions, and let it be seen that they are 
able to bring out the whole strength of this vast 
country to carry them into execution.'^ Then the 
members of the body went to their homes, and prac- 
tically showed their people how to bring out that 
strength. But for them, we are told, "it would 
often have been impossible to obtain recruits to 
keep up the forces requisite to oppose a too often 
victorious enemy .^^* "They were accounted the 
ringleaders of the rebellion.^^ " Their houses were 
plundered, their churches often burned and their 

* Futhey's '^ History of the Upper Octorara Church," page 75. 



40 HISTORICAL SKETCH 

books and manuscripts committed to the flames/^'^ 
Under their leadership^ inspired by their ringing 
exhortations, in some cases led by them in person 
into the army, the members of their churches poured 
out their blood like water and offered their means 
upon the altar of their country^s independence. 

Moreover, in the establishment of the permanent 
governments of the colonies, it is the testimony of 
Bancroft that ^^ the rigid Presbyterians proved in 
America the supporters of religious freedom. They 
were true to the spirit of the great English dis- 
senter who hated all laws that were formed 

" ' To stretch the conscience, and to bind 
The native freedom of the mind/ . . . 

^'Nor was this demand by Presbyterians for equal- 
ity confined to Virginia, where they were in a minor- 
ity ; it was from Witherspoon of New Jersey that 
Madison imbibed the lesson of perfect freedom in 
matters of conscience. When the constitution of 
that State was framed by a convention composed 
chiefly of Presbyterians, they established perfect 
liberty of conscience without the blemish of a test/'f 
. The territory of the Synod was largely the battle- 
field of the revolution. Upon it may be concen- 
trated many of the descriptions which are given of 
the war and of the conduct of Presbyterians. Its 
ministers and people were among the most pro- 
nounced in the colonial service. 

^Gillett's" History .'' 

t "History of the United States," ix. 278. 



OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 41 

Dorner, the Berlin theologian, in a letter that he 
wrote to the Presbyterian conference which met in 
London in 1875^ said: ^^The Presbyterian churches 
represent the muscular system in the great body of 
evangelical Christendom — the principle of powerful 
movement and initiative/^ Like all epigrammatic 
sentences^ the assertion is not exhaustive^ nor does 
it express a rounded truth. But it has a most per- 
tinent application. 

In Eastern Pennsylvania the Presbyterian Church, 
by its intelligence, by the means which it controls, 
by its social standing, accompanying the system of 
truth to which it is pledged, should, under the 
grace of God, be the grandest of saving powers. 
It should both initiate and impel; and it should 
work, not for itself or for the glory of its own 
name, but for the glory of the Redeemer. There- 
fore, as against the combined hosts of Romanism, 
rationalism and immorality, it should rejoice in the 
success of all the divisions of the grand army of 
the Lord, letting the w^hole force have the benefit 
of its powerful movement, while of course it will 
specially commemorate its own conquests under the 
great Leader. 

Humbly confessing that it has by no means done 
all that God has placed within its power ; that it 
has not overtaken, as it should have done, the field 
w^hich it is its grand heritage to occupy with the 
other branches of the Church of Christ; that much 
of its resources have never yet been subsidized in 



42 HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 

the service of the Lord^ — let it magnify divine grace 
ill the work that has been done in and by it, and 
let it enter upon the second centenary of the nation 
with the resolve that its report shall be brighter 
than this of the first. 

ISroTE. — When I was appointed by the Synod of 1874 to pre- 
pare tlie foregoing sketch, I did not expect to be absent from 
the country during any portion of the year, or I would have 
declined the appointment. But, in fact, the five months which 
I was privileged to spend abroad covered the time in which I 
would have prepared the sketch. I returned almost on the 
eve of the meeting at which it was to be read. The search for 
its facts and figures and the throwing of them into form for 
presentation had to be compressed into a few days, which were 
also much occupied with domestic and church duties. Since 
the delivery of the paper the desire to have it speedily in type 
is so urgently expressed by those who have it in charge that I 
cannot take time to make any changes in it or additions to it. 
It must, therefore, appear in its first and hastily-prepared form. 
I make this statement, not as an apology for what it contains, 
but because there are other points which I would like to have 
presented if the circumstances had permitted it. The internal 
life of this Synod deserves to be more fully written than it has 
yet been. I have scarcely been able to touch upon it in this 
paper. Matters connected with our recent but now happily 
healed division, I have deliberately omitted to notice. 

R. M. P. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

OP 

DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS 

OF THE 

SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA 

WHO HAVE DIED DURING THE LAST HUNDRED TEARS. 

BY THE 

Eev. ROBERT DAVIDSON, D.D. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 



THE duty that has been assigned me is to present 
brief Biographical Sketches of Distinguished 
Members of the Synod of Philadelphia who have 
died during the last hundreds years. 

The Synod of Philadelphia proper did not come 
into existence till 1789^ when the old Synod of 
New York and Philadelphia constituted itself a 
General Assembly, comprising the four Synods of 
New Yorhy Philadelphia, Virginia and the Carolinas. 
The Synod of Philadelphia consisted of the five 
Presbyteries of Philadelphia, New Castle, Lewes, 
Baltimore and Carlisle, embracing sixty-seven min- 
isters and one hundred and thirty-one congrega- 
tions. 

By this time death had made havoc among the 
prominent members of the old Synod. William 
Tennent, St., founder of the Log College at Nesham- 

45 



46 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

iny; Gilbert Tennent, his son^ the friend of White- 
field, who dressed in a loose greatcoat girt v/ith a 
leathern girdle ; William Tennent, Jr., of Freehold, 
who had the remarkable trance ; Beatty, ancestor 
of Dr. C. C. Beatty ; Prime, of Huntingdon^ L. I., 
who had come over with his fellow-clergy in a body 
from the Congregation alists^ ancestor of those dis- 
tinguished editors and authors the Primes of New 
York; Francis Alison, the learned divine who 
founded the school at New London^ Pa.^ the germ 
of the present University of Pennsylvania ; Steele, 
of Carlisle, who, like the men of his congregation, 
went to church with his musket by his side for fear 
of the redskins, — these, with other useful and hon- 
ored divines, had gone to ^^the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, whose names are writ- 
ten in heaven.'^ 

In the year following the erection of the Synod 
of Philadelphia proper the new Synod was called 
to mourn the loss of some of its most honored 
fathers. 

Dr, Robert Smith was born in Londonderry, Ire- 
land, in 1723, and came with his parents to this 
country in 1730, when seven years old. He re- 
ceived his education from Rev. Samuel Blair, of 
Fagg's Manor. He was ordained pastor of Pequea 
church, Lancaster county, March 25, 17e51, where 
he remained for forty-two years, till his decease, 
April 15, 1793. Other accounts place his death in 
1790. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 47 

As to the mode of his death there is an irrecon- 
cilable discrepancy between his biographers. Rich- 
ard Webster recites cjuite a tragical ending. He 
says that^ returning from Philadelphia, he was 
found lying dead on the roadside in Chester 
county, Tvath his horse standing beside him."^ Dr. 
A. Alexander states that he was returning from a 
meeting of the trustees of the College of New Jersey, 
and was overtaken by sickness near his own church, 
and entered a friend's house to rest and repaired 
to a private chamber, where he soon after quietly 
expired, f Webster also says that he was, at his 
death, in the seventy-first year of his age. J Dr. 
Alexander, on the contrary, says that he died in 
the sixty-third year of his age. § " Non nostrum 
has componere lites,^^ 

Dr. Smith was a man of superior gifts, an able 
theologian and profound casuist, a plain preacher 
but active pastor, and all that he published was a 
small treatise on faith. The school which he es- 
tablished at Pequea acquired a great reputation ; 
but he is better known to posterity as the father of 
those two great lights of the Churc^h, Dr. Samuel 
Stanhope Smith, of Princeton College, and Dr. John 
Blair Smith, of Union College. The fact of a father 

^ Webster's '^ History of Presbyterian Church/' p. 614. 
f '' Presbyterian Magazine/^ v. 175. 
J Webster, p. 614. 

§ '^Presbyterian Magazine," v., p. 175; Sprague's '^Annals," 
iii., p. 173. 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

and two sons successively elevated to the mode- 
rator's chair in the General Assembly is without a 
parallel.* 

The Rev. George Duffield^ D, D,, was born in 
Lancaster county, Pa., October 7, 1732, and had 
Huguenot blood in his veins, the name having been 
originally Du Fielde, He was educated at New- 
ark Academy, Del., and graduated at Nassau Hall, 
N. J., in 1752. Plis theological studies w^ere con- 
ducted under Dr. Robert Smith, of Pequea. After 
officiating for two years as tutor at Princeton, he 
was ordained, September, 1759, over the united 
churches of Carlisle, Big Spring (now Newville), 
and Monaghan (now Dillsburg). Carlisle w^as at 
this time a frontier town and j)rotected by a gar- 
rison, and the church at Monaglian was regularly 
fortified and watched by sentries for fear of Indi- 
ans. But Indian warfare was not the only warfare 
to which the young minister was exposed. He had 
warmly espoused ,the sentiments of the New Lights, 
and met with obstacles from the Old Side party 
under Mr. Steele. No wonder that steel and flint 
struck fire. He encountered similar opposition 
when he removed in 1771 to Old Pine Street 
church, Philadelphia, over which the First church 
claimed to have some jurisdiction. To such a de- 
gree did the disturbances rise that the aid of the 
civil mag^istrate had to be invoked and the riot act 



^^x 



^ Spragiie's '' Annals/' iii. 172 ; Webster's '' History/' p. 613; 
Van Rensselaer's '^ Presbyterian Magazine/' v. 175. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 49 

read. In the end^ however, he was allowed to ex- 
ercise his functions unmolested. 

It is not to be supposed that a man of such a 
polemical turn would be quiescent during the 
Revolutionary war ; and accordingly, besides 
serving as chaplain of Congress, he fearlessly 
shared the perils of the army, and made himself 
so obnoxious to the enemy that a price was put 
upon his head. 

His death occurred, after a brief illness, Febru- 
ary 2, 1790, at the age of fifty-seven. 

Dr. Duffield^s excessive buoyancy in youth was 
never completely extinguished; and his ardent tem- 
perament made him, in riper years, an animated 
and popular preacher. He v/as the grandfather of 
the late Dr. George Duffield, of Carlisle and De- 
troit. The estimation in which he was held by 
his contemporaries may be inferred from the fact 
of his having been chosen the first stated clerk of 
the General Assembly, which post he held at the 
time of his death. His only published works wen^, 
^^An Account of a Missionary Tour through \A>>t- 
ern Pennsylvania in 1766/' by order of Synod, and 
a ^^Thanksgiving Sermon on Peace/^ December 11, 
1783.* 

Dr, James Bproai was born at Scituate, Massa- 
chusetts, April 11, 1722. He graduated at Yale 
College. Being converted under a sermon of Gill)ert 
Tennent, he resolved to enter the ministry. His 
^ Sprague's "Annals," iii. 186; Webster's ''History," 672. 
4 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

first pastoral charge was the Congregational church 
of Guilford, Connecticut, where he remained for 
twenty-five years. On the decease of Gilbert Ten- 
nent he was called to succeed him in the Second 
church of Philadelphia, at the close of the year 
1768. Here he remained till his death, October 
18, 1793, in the seventy-second year of his age. 
He fell a victim to the yellow fever, which was then 
desolating Philadelphia, and he would not desert 
his post. 

Dr. Sproat was a ripe scholar, a well-read divine 
and an amiable man. He was highly esteemed in 
the judicatories of the Church as a weighty coun- 
selor, and his name is found on the most import- 
ant committees. His only publication was a " Ser- 
mon on the Death of Whitefield.^^ He was the 
last clergyman who appeared in public v>^ith cocked 
hat and wig. (Sprague's "Annals,^^ iii. 125.) 

The decade from 1796 to 1806 was marked by 
further diminution. The last year of the century 
witnessed the decease of that eminent divine Dr. 
John Blair Smith, 

Dr. Smith was the fourth son of Dr. Robert 
Smith, of Pequea. He was born June 12, 1756. 
Converted at fourteen years of age, he graduated 
under Dr. Witherspoon at eighteen. At the early 
age of twenty-three he succeeded his brother, 
Samuel Stanhope Smith, as president of Hampden- 
Sidney College and pastor of the Briery church. 
Becoming convinced that his proper sphere w^as 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 51 

the pulpit, he resigned the presidency in 1789; 
and after preaching some time without a fixed 
charge, in 1791 he accepted a call to the Third or 
Pine Street church, Philadelphia. Here his health 
failed, and his resolution was shaken. While on 
this account he disavowed all fickleness, he accepted 
the presidency of the newly-founded Union College, 
in Schenectady ; but on the restoration of his health, 
he returned to his former charge, and was formally 
reinstalled over Pine street church. May, 1799. 
But his stay with them was short and did not 
vindicate his claims to prescience. He succumbed 
in three months to an* attack of yellow fever, and 
died August 22, 1799. 

Dr. Smith was an extemporaneous and impas- 
sioned preacher, and powerful revivals occurred 
under his ministry. Like others of his compa- 
triots, he showed his faith by his works, and 
marched at the head of his students and other 
youths of his congregation in pursuit of the 
enemy in the lower parts of Virginia. He ex- 
erted also a great influence in opposition to Patrick 
Henry in preventing the unequal taxation and 
assessment of the Presbyterian churches in Vir- 
ginia. He left no printed vvorks behind him.'^- 
Dr. Smith was the moderator of the General 
Assembly in 1798. 

John Craighead was born near Carlisle in 1 742. 
He graduated at the College of New Jersey in 
* Spagiie's "Annals/^ iii. 397. 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

1764^ and studied theology with Dr. Robert Sniith 
at Peqiiea. He was ordained over Eocky Spring 
congregation, near Chambersburgj April 13_, 1768. 
He died April 20, 1799, aged fifty-seven years. ''^ 

The old church at Rocky Spring is still extant, 
and is a curiosity worth visiting. Though some- 
Tfhat altered, it retains substantially the pristine 
features. The aisles are paved with brick ; the 
pews are straight-backed and of unpainted oak ; 
the narrov/ pulpit, with its sounding-board, is 
painted light blue (symbolical of orthodoxy!); the 
elder's bench, a thick slab of wood ; the commu- 
nion service of pewter, from London, and black 
vrith age. Two ten-plate stoves of the most 
primitive form warmed the house, the stovepipes 
ascendino; throug-h holes in the ceilins: into the 
garret, whence the smoke escaped, vvdthou': any 
chimneys, the best way it could. The sido door 
is still shown where Mr. Craighead stood and 
harangued the men assembled in the churchyard, 
and so stirred up their patriotic feelings that they 
organized themselves into a company and went 
through the Revolutionary war with their pastor 
for their captain and chaplain. 

He was a humorist, and the anecdote is told of 
him that one day a cannon-ball struck a tree near 
which he was standing with Mr. Cooper, and a 
splinter from the tree nearly prostrated him, 

^^You narrowly escaped being knocked into 
'^" Memoranda famished by Dr. James B. Craighead. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 53 

staves/^ exclaimed Mr. Cooper. " Yes/^ replied 
Mr. Craighead, "and you could not have set me 
up again, though you are a Cooper.^^^ 

Dr, John Ewlng was born in Cecil county, Mary- 
land, June 22, 1732. He was a pupil of Dr. Fran- 
cis Alison at New London, Pa., and for three years 
a tutor. In 1754 he graduated at the College of 
New^ Jersey, then at Newark, N. J., Aaron Burr 
being president. Here also he served as tutor. 
He was then eno-ao-ed as an instructor in the Col- 
lege, afterward University, of Philadelphia. In 
1774 and 1775 he visited Great Britain to solicit 
aid for Newark Academy, Delaware, in v/hich 
effort he was quite successful, and made many 
friends. The University of Edinburgh conferred 
on him the degree of D. D., and Principal Robert- 
son declared he had never bestow^ed the degree with 
greater pleasure in his life. But very naturally 
the American was not so g-reat a favorite with the 
high tories of the period. Dr. Samuel Johnson, in 
his presence, gruffly abused the colonies as ignor- 
ant as well as rebellious. ^' What do you know 
in America?'^ said he; ^S^ou never read.^^ ^^ Par- 
don me,'^ replied Dr. Ewing; ^^we have read the 
^ Rambler.^ '' ''A soft answer turneth away wrath f^ 
and tlie ursa major w^as at once mollified, and paid 
special attention to the guest for the remainder of 
the evening. 

Dr. Ewdng was made provost of the University 
^ IS^evin's "Churches of the Valley," page 211. 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

of Pennsylvania in 1779. He was a thorough 
Hebraist and an accomplished scholar^ capable of 
supplying any professor's place at a moment's warn- 
ing. He excelled in mathematics^ assisting Ritten- 
honse in running the boundary-lmes between sev- 
eral of the States. He was a solid and instructive 
preacher^ and much esteemed by the intellectual 
and cultivated portion of his congregation. Gillett 
places a high estimate upon him when he calls him 
^^the leading member of Philadelphia Presbytery.* 

Dr. Ewing died September 8,. 1802, in the sev- 
enty-first year of liis age. His lectures on natural 
philosophy, in two volumes, and a volume of ser- 
mons, were ])ublished after his death. f 

Dr. Patrick Allison (no relation of Dr. Francis 
Alison, though likewise of Irish descent) was born 
in Lancaster county. Pa., in 1740. He chose for 
his patrimony a good education, and after graduat- 
ing in tlie University of Pennsylvania in 1760 
was made professor in Newark Academy, Delaware. 
In 1765 he ^yas ordained pastor of the church of 
Baltimore. Baltimore was then only a hamlet of 
thirty or forty houses, and he witnessed the growth 
and expansion both of t]ie town and of his church. 
He remained there for thirty-five years, till his 
death, which took place August 21, 1802, at the age 
of sixty-two. 

* Gillett's " rlistorj of the Presbyterian Chtircli in the 
United States," i. 304. 

t Sprague's ''Annals/' iii. 216. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 55 

Dr. Allison was noted for his ardent patriotism, 
his blameless character, his dignified deportment, 
his fine scholarship and his parliamentary abilities 
in the councils of the Church. He published lit- 
tle, but that little, which was of a polemical nature, 
was weighty and trenchant.* 

D7\ Charles Nisbet was born in Haddington, 
Scotland, January 21, 1736. At the age of eigh- 
teen he graduated at the University of Edinburgh, 
and studied divinity for six years more, when he 
was licensed to preach in 1760. In early life he 
w^as employed as tutor in the family of Lord Leven. 
After an engagement in Glasgow he was settled 
as pastor of the large congregation of Montrose, 
May 17, 1764. Like his friend Witherspoon, he 
was bitterly opposed to the moderate party in the 
Kirk, and lampooned them without mercy. He 
became no less noted as a friend of the American 
colonies; and being strongly recommended by Dr. 
Witherspoon, he accepted an invitation from John 
Dickinson and Dr. Rush to become president of 
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Here he remained 
from July 4, 1785, till his death, January 18, 1804, 
in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

Dr. Nisbet was a man of strong natural abilities, 
but these were so overshadowed by his extensive 
reading and prodigious memory that it is by tradi- 
tions respecting the latter he is now best know^n. 
He was called a walking library. He could recite 
^ Sprague's "Annals," iii. 257. 



56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

copious passages, if not whole books, from the 
(Trrek, Latin and British classics. A gentleman 
once made a quotation from the vl]neid and })aused. 
Dr. Nisbet exclaimedj ^^Why don^t you go on, 
man ? The rest is as good as what you have given.'^ 
But the other being unable to do so, Dr. Nisbet 
completed the passage at length. He was acquaint- 
ed more or less familiarly with nine languages — 
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, 
Gei^man and Low Dutch. 

His wit and sarcasm were not less remarkable 
truin his memory. He preached memoritery and 
for a time served as co-pastor of the Carlisle church, 
and his discourses were lengthy. When the people 
complained, he said that a long sermon was a long 
affliction to the ungodly, but consented to an agreed 
limit. As soon as the limit was reached he would 
stop short, though in the middle of a sentence, and 
say, '^But your hoor being oot, w^e insist no fur- 
ther." Like Edmund Burke, he took alarm at the 
excesses of the French Revolution, and once said 
that all the imps had deserted the lower regions to 
help the French Revolution. A lady Avho had 
imbibed the fashionable infidel sentiments was scoff- 
ing in his hearing at preaching and preachers as 
lazy and good for nothing. ^^Why,'^ said she, ^^I 
could preach a sermon myself.^^ ^^ Suppose ye try 
it,'^ said Dr. Nisbet, " and I'll give ye a^ text : ' It 
is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top thru 
v/ith a brawling woman in a wide hoose.' '^ The 



SYXOB OF PHILADELPHIA. 57 

lady was incensed^ and reproached him with want 
of courtesy. "Do you mean me?^^ said she. "Oh^ 
madam/^ rejoined the doctor, "you must try it 
again; you've come to the application too soon.^^ 
Some one expressed the hope, on hearing of a young 
clergyman^s settlement, that it would be a perma- 
nent one. "There's nothing permanent in Amer- 
ica/' said Dr. Nisbet, "but revolution.^' 

Dr. Xisbet was a man of vast learning, united 
with the simplicity of a child in v/orldly affairs. 
But his proneness to express his opinions without 
reserve, his satirical turn, his fixed European habits 
and his want of flexibility to accommodate himself 
to the requirements of his new position, undoubt- 
edly proved impediments to the wide and beneficial 
influence fondly expected from his transference to 
America.* 

Dr, John Blair Linn was born in Shippensbr rg, 
Pa., March 14, 1777, and was a precocious boy. 
He graduated at Columbia College at eighteen, 
before which time he had already published in the 
periodical press essays in prose and verse and writ- 
ten a play, which was acted. He commenced the 
study of the law with General Hamilton, but aban- 
doned it in disgust. He then studied theology with 
Dr. Ecmeyn, a Dutch divine of Schenectady. After 
entering the ministry his great popularity secured 
him many invitations, but his choice led him to 

* Mir-r's ''Life of Nisbel ;" Sprnsiie's ''Annals/' iii.450; 
Dr. Davidson's " Funeral Discourse.''' 



58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

become the associate of Dr. Ewing in the First 
church, Philadelphia, June, 1799. In 1802 he 
suffered from a sunstroke, from the effect of which 
he never entirely recovered. His spirits became 
depressed, and he died of hemorrhage, August 30, 
1804, at the early age of twenty-seven. 

Besides his early poems, his published works 
were a " Poem on the Death of Washington,^^ a 
^^Poem on the Powers of Genius," a posthumous 
poem called ^^ Valerian," a ^^ Sermon on the Death 
of Dr. Ewing," and a " Reply to Dr. Priestley^s 
Comparison between Socrates and Christ." The 
merit of this reply gained him the degree of D. D. 
from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Linn's 
tastes were refined and poetic, and his sensibilities 
exquisite. This led him, though warm and gen- 
erous in his nature, to a moody and melancholy 
state of mind and a morbid dread of death, which 
was only held in check by a deep sense of religion.* 

Dr, Robert Cooper was born in the North of 
Ireland in 1732, and at the age of nine accom- 
panied his widowed mother to America. With 
no little struggling he prepared for college, and 
graduated at the College of New Jersey, under 
Dr. Finley, in 1763. He studied theology pri- 
vately, and was ordained pastor of Middle Spring 
congregation, near Shippensburg, November 21, 
1765. Here he remained thirty-one years. In 
consequence of declining health he resigned, 
* Sprague's '' Annals/' iv. 210. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 59 

April 12, 1797, and died April 5, 1805, in his 
seventy-third year. 

Although he entered the ministry late (at the age 
of thirty-three), he proved himself a wise master- 
builder, skillful in ^^the orthotomy of truth/^ 
Prior to the era of theological seminaries he had 
a little private divinity school of his own, to which 
many young students repaired with profit^ as Dr. 
McKnight, Dr. Joshua Williams, Dr. Herron, etc. 
As a preacher Dr. Cooper was solid and instructive, 
without any pretensions to the graces of delivery. 
He wrote his sermons, but did not use the manu- 
script in the pulpit. He was unhappily subject to 
hypochondria, which finally put an end to his 
public ministrations. It is gratifying to know that 
this calamity was not permitted to darken his last 
hours. 

His printed writings were a tract on ^^The Signs 
of the Times ^^ and a sermon preached before the 
troops."^ 

Dr. John Kingy a man highly esteemed in his 
day, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
December 5, 1740. He designed to study medi- 
cine, but was dissuaded by Dr. Francis Alison, and 
prepared for the sacred ministry. He was ordained 
over Conococheague church in 1769, and remained 
there till his death, July 5, 1811, in the seventy- 
first year of his age. Dr. King was a fine specimen 
of a godly, painstaking, useful and respectable 

* Sprague's '' Annals," iii. 273. 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

country clergyman. His discourses \vere not 
brilliant, but logical and instructive. He was 
held in high repute both as a theologian and as 
familiar with the field of natural science. His 
brethren must have esteemed him, for he was 
cliosen moderator of the General Assembly in 
1792, the year when, for fear of the public enemy, 
the Assembly met in Carlisle.''' 

Rev, Nathaniel Irwin was born at Fagg's Manor, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1756. 
He graduated at Princeton in 1770, along with 
James (afterward President) Madison. He was 
ordained over Neshaminy church, November 3, 
1774, and continued there till his death, March 3, 
1812, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and thirty- 
ninth of his pastorate. A shrewd knowledge of 
human nature and an uncommon business tact 
fitted him to exert a great influence in the Church 
courts ; as a proof of which, he was clerk of the 
old Synod, moderator of the General Assembly in 
1801, and the next year permanent clerk till 1807. 
Though his manners in private were stiff and un- 
bending, he was forcible and pathetic in the pulpit. 
He was fond of music, and was a proficient on 
that unclerical instrument, the violin. He was of 
a scientific turn, and was John Fitch's first patron. 
He also took a lively interest in local politics, and 
laid himself open to animadversion on account of 
it; For several years he held the office of register 
^ Spragne's "Annals," iii. 281. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 61 

and recorder of Bucks county. He had a power- 
ful voice and a long head, both physically and in- 
tellectually. His name is the first in the list of 
moderators without a title."^ 

Filial piety may be pardoned for the introduction 
of the next name to be presented here by citing 
the language of the historian, Dr. Gillett. He 
says: ^^Tavo of the most memorable members of 
the Presbytery were located at Carlisle — one, Dr. 
Charles Ifisbet, president of Dickinson College, 
and tlie other, Dr. Robert Davidson, a professor 
in the institution and the pastor of the church.'^ f 

Dr. Robert Davidson was born in Cecil county, 
Maryland, in 1750. He was educated in iSTewark 
Academy, Delaware, Vv'here he acted for a time as 
tutor. At the age of twenty-four he was appointed 
professor of history and belles-lettres in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and at the same time (1774) 
was ordained by the Second Presbytery of Phila- 
delphia, and acted as assistant to Dr. Ewing in the 
First church. In 1775 the young professor com- 
posed a dialogue in verse, which was recited at 
commencement before the Continental Congress. 
In July of the same year, a month after the battle 
of Bunker Plill, he preached and printed a sjDicy 
patriotic sermon before several military companies 
from the significant text, ^^And many fell down, 
for the war was of God.^^ 1 Chron. v. 22. 

■^ Sprague's "Annals," iii. 334. 
t Gillett's " History," i. 314. 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

In 1785^ being now thirty-five years of age^ Dr. 
Davidson removed to Carlisle as pastor of the 
church there^ and continued in that connection the 
remainder of his life — that is, for twenty-seven 
years. His benignity of disposition and exemplary 
character helped to heal previously existing aliena- 
tions and consolidated all parties^ both Old and New 
Lights^ in uninterrupted harmony. At the same 
time, mainly through the influence of Dr. Rush, 
he received the appointment of professor of history 
and belles-lettres and vice-president in Dickinson 
College. He was chosen moderator of the General 
Assembly in 1796. Upon Dr. Nisbet^s decease, in 
1804, Dr. Davidson discharged the office of presi- 
dent for five years, when he resigned to devote him- 
self exclusively to his parochial duties. He died 
December 13, 1812, in the sixty-second year of his 
age. 

His reputation as a scholar was equal to his in- 
tegrity as a man. He was acquainted more or less 
familiarly with eight languages, was a proficient 
in music and drawing, and v/as especially fond of 
astronomy. He invented a cosmosphere, or com- 
pound globe, by Avhich astronomical problems are 
easily solved. As a preacher he was clear, didac- 
tic and free from affectation, but not fluent nor apt 
to rise to the highest flights of eloquence. As a 
wise counselor in the courts of the Church he 
ranked fairly, if we may judge from the important 
committees on Avhich his name is found in the min- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 63 

utes of the Old Synod. One of these was a com- 
mittee^ of which Drs. Alison and Ewing and Messrs. 
Blair and Jones were also members^ in 1785, to 
prepare a new and more suitable version of the 
Psalms."^ 

Dr. Davidson^s published writings were a vari- 
ety of occasional sermons, orations and poems. Of 
the latter were a geography in verse, which the stu- 
dents committed to memory, and a metrical version 
of the Psalms, published in 1812. f 

James Iiiglis, D, D., was born in Philadelphia in 
1777, of Scotch and Huguenot ancestry. He grad- 
uated at Columbia College, N. Y., in 1795, at the 
age of eighteen, and commenced the study of the 
law wnth General Hamilton, but becoming a sub- 
ject of divine grace abandoned the law for theol- 
ogy, which he studied under Dr. Eodgers, of ^ew 
York. In February, 1802, he succeeded Dr. Pat- 
rick Allison as pastor of the First church of Balti- 
more, where he continued till his death, in 1820. 
He died in his bed, of apoplexy, on Sunday morn- 
ing, while the congregation were waiting for him 
to commence the usual services. One of his sons 
is Judge John A. Inglis, professor of commercial 
law in the University of Maryland, and chief-jus- 
tice of the orphans^ court of Maryland. 

Dr. Inglis was a sound theologian and good 

^ Minutes Synod of New York and Philadelphia, p. 514. 
f Dr. Cathcart's ^' Funeral Sermon ;" Sprague's " Annals," 
ill. 322; Gillett's "History,'^ i. 318. 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

scholar. He vras one of the most polished and 
elegant orators this country has ever produced, ac- 
cording to such judges as Drs. Stanhope Smith, 
D wight and Sprague. He used manuscript in the 
pulpit, but was not slavishly confined to it. His 
perorations were composed in a lofty style, and 
were particularly startling and impressive. His 
prayers were premeditated, and not less devout and 
solemn than his sermons. His manner was stately 
and not familiar. His published vrritings were 
several occasional discourses and a posthumous 
volume of sermons, accompanied with forms of 
prayer.^ Dr. Inglis was moderator of the Gen- 
eral Assembly in 1814. 

I)7\ John McKnight was born near Carlisle, Pa., 
October 1, 1754. He graduated at Princeton in 
1773. His theological studies were conducted un- 
der Dr. Cooper. After ministering to a congre- 
gation in Virginia from 1775 till 1783, he was 
settled over Lower ^larsh Creek church, in Adams 
county, Pa. December 2, 1789, he was installed 
col'eague pastor with Dr. Rodgers in New York. 
"In 1791 he was elected moderator of thQ General 
As.semblv. After twenty years' service in ISTew 
York, in consequence of new arrangements made 
in the collegiate charge, he resigned, April, 1809. 
The church of Rocky Spring solicited him to be- 
come their pastor ; but as his health was delicate, 
he consented to be a stated supply only, at the same 
^ Spragne's ''Annals," iv. 278. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 65 

time declining other flattering invitations in the 
State of New York. In 1815 he accepted the pres- 
idency of Dickinson College^ but findnig its finan- 
cial embarrassments in a hopeless condition re- 
signed in a year. He now retired to a farm, and 
jjreached as opportunity offered until his death, 
October 21, 1823, in the seventieth year of his 
age. 

Dr. McKnight combined the dignity of a cler- 
gyman with the urbanity of a gentleman. As a 
preacher he was biblical, didactic and dispassionate, 
without being dull. He appears to have been a 
noteworthy exception to the rule that ^^a prophet is 
not without honor save in his own country .^^ Six 
discourses on faith and several occasional sermons 
were given by him to the world.* 

The sixth decade, from 1826 to 1836, witnessed 
the decease of several illustrious men. 

The Rev, William Ashmead was born in Phila- 
delphia in 1798. He graduated at the University 
of Pennsylvania in 1818, and studied theology with 
Dr. James P. Wilson. He was settled in Lancas- 
ter in 1820. After eight years of labor his health 
gave way, and he sought a southern climate ; but 
after only a month^s pastorate in Charleston, S. C, 
he was prostrated by bilious fever, and died, Decem- 
ber 2, 1829, in the thirty-second year of his age. 

Mr. Ashmead was an accomplished scholar, with 
a fine taste for poetry, and skilled in linguistic and 

* Sprague's '^Annals/' iii. 71 ; "Life of Dr. S. Miller." 
5 



66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

metaphysical pursuits. His style was remarkable 
for beauty, concinnity and a felicitous choice of 
epithets. He left a quantity of MSS. behind him, 
and at the time of his death was engaged on a trans- 
lation of Saurin's *^ Discourses.^^ His only pub- 
lished writings were a sermon, an essay on pauper- 
ism and a posthumous volume of sermons."^ 

Dr. James P. Wilson was born in Lewes, Dela- 
ware, February 21, 1769. He graduated at the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1788. He acted 
for some time as surveyor-general for the State of 
Delaware. He was admitted to practice at the bar. 
The unexpected death of his wife and the assassin- 
ation of his brother before his eyes made such an 
impression of the importance of eternal things that 
he quitted the law for the pulpit. He was ordained 
pastor of the Lewes church, as successor of his 
father, in 1804. In 1806 he accepted a call from 
the First church in Philadelphia, where he re- 
mained till his resignation, in the spring of 1830. 
On December 9 following he departed this life, 
aged sixty-one, at his farm, near Hartsville. For 
some years before his death his infirmities com- 
pelled him to preach sitting on a high chair in the 
pulpit. 

Dr. Wilson was characterized by a few eccen- 
tricities, but they were overlooked, or only excited 
a smile, in view of his sterling worth. He was 
represented by Dr. Ely as a singular compound of 
^ Sprague's "Annals," iv. 641. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 67 

pride with humility^ of profoundness with simpli- 
city, and of severity with mildness. As a preacher 
he was perfectly deliberate and iinimpassioned, 
handling the most abstruse subjects in a masterly 
manner, speaking for an hour without the least 
assistance from notes, yet drawing on the stores of 
a memory replete with recondite learning, especially 
of the Greek and Latin Fathers. He was regarded 
as one of the most learned divines of the day. He 
was of a tall and lank figure, and pallid from a 
habit of blood-letting. His published w^orks con- 
sisted of ^' Occasional Sermons,^^ a '^ Hebrew Gram- 
mar wdthout Points,'^ ^^ Lectures on the New Tes- 
tament," an edition of Ridgeley's ^' Body of Divin- 
ity, with Notes," treatises on church government, 
on wdiich subject he held some peculia^r notions, etc. 
Dr. Ebenezer Dickey was born near Oxford, Ches- 
ter county. Pa., March 12, 1772. He graduated in 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1792. He was 
settled over Oxford and Octorara churches by the 
Associate Reformed Presbytery, but in May, 1822, 
came into connection w^ith the General Assembly 
along wdth Dr. Mason, Dr. Junkin and others. He 
remained pastor of Octorara till 1800, and of Ox- 
ford, though tempted by other and more lucrative 
calls, until his death, May 31, 1831. 

"A man he was to all the country dear, 
And passing rich on forty pounds a year ; 
Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 
Nor ever changed, nor wished to change, his place." 



68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

As a preacher Dr. Dickey was clear and well 
informed, preacliing Avith solemnity and unction, 
without any straining after oratorical effect. His 
manners were genial and unassuming. He was 
esteemed as a wise and safe counselor, and his opin- 
ions had great weight in the church courts. In 
short, he filled his niche well as a useful and re- 
spected rural divine. He published little, only a 
tract, an essay and ^^ Travels ^^ in the ^Xliristian 
Advocate.^*"^ 

Rev. Joseph Patterson was born in county Down, 
Ireland, in 1752. Pie manifested serious impres- 
sions at a very early age. When twenty years old, 
he emigrated with liis wife to America, and taught 
a school in Germantown. He heard the Declara- 
tion of Independence read, and fired with patriotic 
enthusiasm gave up his scliool and entered the Rev- 
olutionary army. After the v>'ar he removed, in 
1779, to Washington county, and passed through 
all the arduous and trying experiences common to 
first settlers in a wilderness. Such was his charac- 
ter for piety that the popular voice, conjoined with 
the advice of the Presbytery of Redstone, induced 
him to study theology with Rev. Joseph Smith. 
He Avas licensed to preach August, 1788, and in 
April the following year, 1789, he accepted a call 
to Raccoon and Montour Creek churches. He was 
now at the mature age of thirty-seven. Both con- 
gregations so increased that he found himself com- 
^ Spragiie's '^ Annal"^/^ iv. 133. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 69 

pelled to restrict his labors to the first named only. 
But his labors elsewhere were also abundant. He 
took several missionary tours^ and one to the Shaw- 
nee Indians. In 1816, after twenty-seven and a 
half years' labor, his growing infirmities obliged 
liim to resign his charge. He then repaired to 
Pittsburg, where for the remaining sixteen years of 
his life he employed his time as a Bible agent, dis- 
tributing; thousands of Bibles amono; the emio^rants 
and boatmen. His active and useful life drew to 
a close February 4, 1831, in the eightieth year of 
his age. 

Mr. Patterson was a man of prayer. He was 
a practical man and a wise counselor. He had a 
word suited to every character and every emer- 
gency. His discourses were singularly impressive 
and experimental. Without the advantages of col- 
lege education, unaided by the accessions of family 
or fortune, and somewhat advanced in life when he 
entered the ministry, by the force of native charac- 
ter he reached a degree of respectability, usefulness 
and influence rarely attained. Pages might be 
filled with anecdotes illustrative of his peculiar 
traits."^ 

Dr, Jolin Glencly was another great light of the 
favored Baltimore pulpit. He was born in Lon- 
donderry, in the jSTorth of Ireland, June 24, 1755. 
But he might have been easily taken for a native 
of the South of Ireland ; for if any man might have 
* Smith's '' Old Eedstone/' page 386. 



70 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

been credited with kissing the blarney-stone^ it was 
Dr. Glendy. Exiled by the British government for 
supposed complicity with the Irish rebellion^ he 
found an asylum in America. After preaching in 
Virginia for two years very acceptably^ he was 
called, in 1803, to the Second church in Baltimore, 
expressly formed for him by his admirers. He 
served as chaplain to Congress in 1806, 1815 and 
1816. His growing infirmities led to the settlement 
of Dr. John Breckenridge as associate pastor in 
1826, and finally compelled him to resign entirely. 
He died in Philadelphia, October 4, 1832, aged 
seventy-seven. 

Dr. Glendy 's style resembled that of his fellow- 
countrymen, Curran and Phillips. It was a torrent 
of eloquent declamation. He fascinated his audi- 
ence and commanded their rapt attention by his 
graceful, ornate and fluent rhetoric. He was neat 
in his dress, and wore his hair curled and pow- 
dered. His manners were courtly, and he was pro- 
fuse in the language of compliment. He w^as never 
oblivious that he was Dr. Glendy. At one time 
he was very popular and admired, and crowds ran 
after him. But candor compels us to admit that 
he was not regarded as a spiritually-minded clergy- 
man ; and though not deficient in orthodoxy, his 
preaching was not calculated to awaken sinners or 
to promote revivals. On one occasion, when the 
General Assembly was stirred by the reports of 
signal revivals from every quarter, Dr. Glendy re- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 71 

marked that his church was well filled, the seats 
were all taken and the pew rents were paid punc- 
tually, and if that was not a revival he knew of 
none other. Thereupon, Dr. Dwight, who was 
then present from Connecticut, rose and said, " If 
the brother did really not know what a revival of 
religion was, he would endeavor to enlighten him.'^ 
With this mild rebuke he proceeded to describe a 
genuine revival. 

Dr. Glendy did not distinguish himself as an 
author. The only production of his pen was an 
^^ Oration on the Death of General Washington,^' 
in 1800.* 

Dr. John McMillan was born at Fagg's Manor, 
Chester county, Pa., November 11, 1752. After 
being fitted for college at Fagg's Manor Academy 
by Dr. Samuel Blair, he graduated at Nassau Hall, 
Princeton, under Dr. Witherspoon, in 1772. While 
at college he was one day so impressed by his soli- 
tary reflections of truth and duty that he became 
the subject of a sudden conversion, and in conse- 
quence, upon graduating, studied theology with Dr. 
Robert Smith of Pequea. He was licensed by New 
Castle Presbytery in 1774, at the age of twenty- 
two, and performed missionary service in Mary- 
land, Western Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. 
In 1775 he organized the churches of Pigeon Creek 
and Chartiers, over which he was ordained the fol- 
lowing year by the Presbytery of Donegal. He 
^ Sprague^s '^ Annals," iv. 229 : Reminiscences. 



rZ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

soon after married^ and removed his worldly all to 
his field of labor on pack-horses. He lived in a 
log cabin, and was a stranger to all the luxuries of 
life. He established a school^ which became the 
nucleus of Jefferson College. From this theolog- 
ical school issued a hundred young men, many of 
W'hom afterward became distinguished preachers. 
He died ISTovember 16^ 1833^ aged eighty-one. 

As a preacher Dr. McMillan w^as zealous and 
povv^erful. His style partook of the athletic rug- 
gedness of his person. Though he w^ote and mem- 
orized his sermons, he gave little attention to the 
beauties of rhetoric. He lashed wdth unsparing 
hand whatever he conceived to be vices or weak- 
nesses worthy of reproof. Widespread and pow- 
erful revivals occurred under his ministry. He 
W'itnessed w^ithout approval the falling and jerking 
exercises which deformed the great revival of 1800. 
His own people he took care to indoctrinate thor- 
oughly. When the Presbytery of Redstone was 
attached to the Synod of Virginia, Dr. McMillan^s 
relations to this Synod of course ceased ; but it is 
pleasant to reflect that the early labors of this 
patriarch of Western Pennsylvania were fostered 
by the Synod of Philadelphia."^ 

William Nevins, D, D,, was born in Xorwich, 

Conn., October 13, 1797. Although designed for 

commercial life, such was his unquenchable thirst 

for learning that he was allowed to enter Yale Col- 

- Smith's "Old Redstone," page 166. 



I 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 7e3 

lege, where he graduated in 1816. His theological 
studies were conducted at Princeton Seminary. He 
was settled over the First church, Baltimore, Octo- 
ber 19, 1820. It was the sermon on his ordination 
that involved Dr. Miller in a controversy with 
Jared Sparks, then a Unitarian pastor. Dr. Nev- 
ins continued in this charge till his death, Septem- 
ber 14, 1835, being just in the prime of his life, 
thirty-eight years of age. 

Though in his early years thought volatile in 
his manners and too imaginative in his pulpit efforts, 
he gradually sobered down, and his " profiting ap- 
peared to all.^^ He became a serious, faithful, 
earnest, deep-toned gospel preacher, and his labors 
were crowned with abundant fruits. He was a 
favorite of William Wirt, Vvho said '' he loved this 
Aear^-preaching.^^ His whole life was beautifully 
consistent, and exhibited the traits of a lovely, win- 
ning and saintly character. He attained to a won- 
derful self-restraint. Once, when assailed in Pres- 
bytery, having been provoked to make a tart reply, 
he acknowledged to the writer his deep compunction 
and humiliation, "^for he had not yielded to anger 
before for seventeen years.^' 

Dr. iS'evins left behind him a few published 
works and several useful tracts. He had said that 
it Vv-as his highest ambition to write a good tract. 
Besides " Occasional Sermons,^^ there was a posthu- 
mous volume of sermons and another of '^ Select 
Remains.'' His articles in the "lSe\Y York Ob- 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

server/' which gained him great reputation^ signed 
M. S,, the final letters of his name^ were afterward 
collected in two well-known volumes^ "Thoughts 
on Popery'' and "Practical Thoughts.""^ 

A. more striking contrast, in every respect, with 
the character which has just been portrayed cannot 
be presented than the one next to be described. 

The Rev. James Patterson was born March 17, 
1779, in Bucks county. Pa. He struggled through 
poverty and difficulty to acquire an education, and 
graduated at Jefferson College in 1804, at the age 
of twenty-five. After acting some time in Prince- 
ton as a tutor, he was settled as pastor of Bound 
Brook church, N. J., June, 1809. January 11, 
1814, he was installed over the First church, North- 
ern Liberties, on Buttonwood street, Philadelphia, 
where he continued till his death, November 17, 
1837, aged fifty-nine. Here his ministry was as- 
tonishingly successful and attended with numerous 
revivals. In the twenty-three years of his pas- 
torate there were one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety additions to the communion. 

Tall and prophet-like, a John Baptist in severe 
denunciation, the thunders of the law lost nothing 
in his hands. Rough and uncouth in his manner, 
he was suited to his location. He resorted to odd 
methods to attract people to church by placards 
and advertisements. He was well read, but no 
logician. Plain, pointed, unadorned, quaint, filled 
^ Sprague's "Annals," iv. 629. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 75 

with a burning and indefatigable zeal, Father Pat- 
terson was the preacher of the masses. 

Dr, Joseph Williams was born in Chester county, 
Pa., August 8, 1767, and was of Welsh extraction. 
He graduated at Dickinson College in 1795, at the 
age of twenty-eight, and studied theology with Dr. 
Cooper, before commemorated. His first charge 
was Paxton and Derry, October 2, 1799. He was 
installed over Big Spring church, or Newville, 
April 14, 1802, where he labored for twenty-seven 
years, till 1829, when, in consequence of the infirmi- 
ties of age, he resigned. His death occurred Au- 
gust 21, 1838, when seventy-one years old. 

Dr. Williams, though quiet and unassuming in 
his general demeanor, was an acute reasoner, a pro- 
found metaphysician after the school of Edwards, 
a well-read theologian, a grave divine, an evangel- 
ical and didactic but earnest preacher. Dr. Elliott 
considered him as having an intellect of high order 
and fitted to rank with the most gifted. He was 
much sought after as a theological instructor. He 
was easily embarrassed in debate in public assem- 
blies, but merciless to the conceited and preten- 
tious."^ When Dr. Dewitt toward the close of his 
life was sketching the characteristics of the fathers 
of the Presbytery in succession and came to the 
Nestor of the Presbytery, he added, ^^ And there was 
Dr. Joshua Williams, whom we allfearecV^ 

^Sprague's "Annals," iv. 186; "Churches of the Valley/' 
p. 54. 



76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Dr. John BrecJcenridge was born at CabelFs Dale^ 
the family seat., near Lexington^ Ky., July 4^ 1799. 
His father was U. S. attorney-general under Pres- 
ident Jefferson^ and died wlien John the son yvtis 
nine years old. The mother (a Cabell of A^irginia) 
might have sat for the mother of the Gracchi^ the 
modern Cornelia^ for her strength of mind and will 
and the training of three such remarkable men as 
John^ Robert and William Breckenridge. John 
graduated at Nassau Hall in 1818^ and was tutor 
for some time^ and then entered on the study of 
the law. But a change in his views led him to 
enter on the sacred ministry^ and he studied theol- 
ogy in Princeton Seminary. After licensure he 
acted as chaplain of the House in Washington. 
September 10^ 1823, he was ordained pastor of the 
Second or McChord church in Lexington, Ky. 
Here he contended bravely against the infidel in- 
fluence of President Holley and Transylvania Uni- 
versity, and to aid his efforts started the Western 
Luminary. In 1826 he became the colleague of 
Dr. Glendy in the Second church in Baltimore. 

In 1831 he was made secretary of the General 
Assembly's Board of Education, and immediately 
it became a grand success, the number of beneficia- 
ries increasing from one hundred to six hundred. 
Two years were passed as professor in Princeton 
Seminary, where he was manifestly out of place, 
the round man in the square hole, and from 1838 
to 1840 he acted as secretary of the Board of For- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 77 

eigii Missions. In his capacity of secretary and 
general agent he flew up and down the land lilxC 
a flash of lightnings electrifying the community 
wherever he appeared. At tlie time of his death 
he was pastor elect of the church in New Or- 
leans^ president elect of Oglethorpe University^ in 
Georgia, and his admirers in Cincinnati were nego- 
tiating with him through the writer of this to ac- 
cept a professorship in Lane Seminary^ to which 
proposal he did not listen for a moment. With 
enfeebled health he returned from New Orleans to 
the maternal mansion^ where he breathed his last 
August 4, 1841, aged forty-four years. 

While Dr. Breckenridge was the model of chiv- 
alric courtesy, one of nature's noblemen, he was at 
the same time perfectly fearless. He was not so 
essentially polemic as his brother Robert, but he 
was quite as courageous, whether doing battle 
ao:ainst the deists of Lexins-ton, fio^hting;: with 
wild beasts in Ephesus for the Colonization Society, 
or debating with John Hughes, afterward arch- 
bishop of New York. 

Dr. Breckenridge was an extempore speaker, 
aided only by a few scraps of paper, and was 
largely dependent on the excitement of the occa- 
sion for his inspiration. Flis person was graceful, 
his manners courtly, his style classical and lively, 
and his enthusiasm sometimes rose to the highest 
flights of eloquence. With his culture and im- 
mense popularity, he was unaffectedly pious. When 



78 BIOGHAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

his exhausted frame was in danger of giving way 
under his exertions and he was counseled to rest, 
he quoted Whitefield's words : " Doctor^ I would 
rather wear out than rust out/^ 

His published writings were a sermon, a literary 
address, controversy with Hughes, and memorial of 
his first wife, who was a daugther of Dr. Miller."^ 

Bev. Samuel G, Wincliester was born in Harford 
county, Maryland, February 17, 1805. At an early 
period he developed a talent for oratory. He gave 
himself to the study of the law; but becoming 
converted under the preaching of Dr. Nevins, he 
turned his back on the law and determined to be- 
come a preacher of the gospel. His father was so 
offended that he disinherited him. After pursuing 
the full course of study in the seminary at Prince- 
ton, he was ordained pastor of the Sixth church of 
Philadelphia, May 4, 1830, After seven years 
there spent, his failing health induced him to ac- 
cept a call to Natchez, Mississippi, where he re- 
mained four years. He died of congestion of the 
brain, August 31, 1841, at the early age of thirty- 
six. 

Mr. Winchester was tall and slender, and had 
an open, prepossessing countenance and pleasant 
voice. He dispensed with notes, and knew how 
to blend the didactic and the hortatory. He was 
a practiced debater, and forced his antagonists to 

■^ Spragiie's ''Annals," iv. 645; Davidson's "History of the 
Presbyterian Church in Kentucky," p. 361. 



SYXOD OF PHILADELPHIA, 79 

respect his youth. His published writiugs were a 
few tractates of practical character."^ 

Di\ William Paxton was born in Lancaster 
county^ Pennsylvania^ April ], 1760. Later in 
life than usual he resolved to obtain a liberal edu- 
cation and prepare for the gospel ministry. After 
being fitted at the Strasburg Academy^ he was 
licensed by New Castle Presbytery^ April 8^ 1790, 
being thirty years old. April 4^ 1792^ he was 
settled over Lower Marsh Creek congregation, 
near Gettysburg, where he remained for forty- 
nine years. He resigned October 19, 1841. His 
death occurred April 16, 1845, in the eighty-sixth 
year of his age. 

Dr. Paxton was six feet in height and of large 
frame. Having laid a good foundation in the 
academy, his studious habits continued during 
life. His sermons were carefully prepared, but 
delivered extempore. He was a devoted and 
faithful pastor. There was nothing especially 
brilliant or remarkable about him, though it is 
said that Thaddeus Stevens pronounced him the 
best preacher he had ever listened to. But a 
young farmer who exchanged the plough for the 
musket, who, after the Revolutionary war, was not 
too proud to go to school, and who maintained 
himself in one pastoral charge for half a century 
with credit and reputation, is worthy of a passing 
notice. He was so modest that he forbade any pro- 
■^ Sprague's ^'Annals," iv, 645 : Reminiscences. 



80 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

d action of his pen to be printed. Dr. Pax ton was 
tlie grandfather of the Rev. Dr. William Paxton^ 
of New York.* 

As the Synod increased in numbers, so the deaths 
were proportionally multiplied. The eighth decade 
witnessed several severe losses. 

Ashbel Green, D.D,, LL,D., was born at Han- 
over, Morris county, N. J., a son of the pastor, 
Eev. Jacob Green. In 1778, at the age of sixteen, 
he was teacher of a school, but dismissed it and 
entered the army. He was promoted, young as he 
was, to be orderly sergeant in the militia. Becom- 
ing infected with skepticism, he was cured of it by 
the study of the New Testament. He entered the 
junior class half advanced, and graduated at Nas- 
sau Hall, in 1783, with the highest honors. After 
acting for a while as tutor, then as professor of 
mathematics and natural philosophy, he entered the 
ministrv. Declining;: invitations from Charleston 
and New York, he was ordained colleague to Dr. 
Sproat in the Second church, Philadelphia, May, 
1787. He was very popular, and large accessions 
were made to the church. 

From 1792 till 1800 he served as chaplain to 
Congress along with Bishop White. In 1812 he 
was made president of the College of New Jersey. 
While he elevated the standard of learning in the 
college, he did not neglect discipline and religious 
instruction. In 1815 there was a revival of relig- 
* Sprague's "Annals," iii. 554. 



SYNOD OF PHILADEI.PHIA. 81 

ion^ and thirty students were its subjects^ among 
them such men of mark as John Breckenridge, 
Dr. Charles Hodge, Bishop Mcllvaine and Bishop 
Johns. In 1822 he resigned and returned to Phil- 
adelphia, where he applied himself to editing the 
Christian Advocate for twelve years. 

In 1824 Dr. Green was elected moderator of the 
General Assembly. He was a member of the As- 
sembly in the years successively 1837, 1838 and 
1839, and took a decided stand in favor of the Old 
School party. ^^The trumpet gave no uncertain 
sound.'^ In 1846 the Old School Assembly met in 
Philadelphia, and the venerable man w^as led in. 
The w^hole Assembly rose to do him honor, and the 
moderator. Dr. Hodge, w^elcomed him, to which 
Dr. Green responded. He was conducted to a chair 
placed for him under the pulpit, but w^as able to 
remain only a short time. May 19, 1848, he paid 
the debt of nature, in the eighty-sixth year of his 
age. He was found dead in the posture of prayer. 

Dr. Green's long experience and active habits 
gave him great weight in the councils of the Church. 
Dr. Van Rensselaer styled him ^^the connecting 
link between old times and new.''* Scarce an im- 
portant action was taken in which he had not a 
share. He was identified w^ith the history of tlie 
Church from the beginning. He could appropri- 
ately apply to himself the words, " quorum jjars 
magna fui.'^ Some objected that he was dictatorial, 

^ '• Presbyterian Magazine," i. 246. 
6 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

or at least magisterial. Dr. Carnahan thought him 
'' fitted to adorn any station/^ Dr. Janeway re- 
garded him as '' the first preacher in the Presbyte- 
rian Church.'^ 

His discourses were written^ but not read. He 
was also in the habit of writing his prayers, to 
which they owed their richness and variety. To 
weighty matter he added an impressive manner, a 
transparent style, beautiful diction and a good de- 
livery. 

" Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ; 
Strong without rage, without overflowing, full." 

His printed works, comprising an autobiography 
and " Lectures on the Shorter Catechism,'^ fill sev- 
eral volumes.'^ 

Dr. Henry R. Wilson was born near Gettysburg, 
August 7, 1780. He graduated at Dickinson Col- 
lege in 1798, and studied theology with Dr. Nisbet. 
His first charge was a congregation in Bellefonte in 
1802, of which he was the founder. He was also 
principal of the academy in the same place. In 
1806 he was made professor of languages in Dick- 
inson College, acting part of the time as assistant 
to the pastor. Dr. Davidson. In 1813 he was in- 
stalled over Silver Spring church, and in 1823 
over the church of Shippensburg. In both charges 
he was diligent and successful. He preached four 
times on the Sabbath, besides opening the Sab- 

^ Sprague's " Annals," iii. 479. 



SYXOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 83 

bath-schoo]. He permitted no weather to interft^re 
with his duty. From 1838 till 1842 he was gen- 
eral agent of the Board of Publication. In 1842 
he was installed over Neshaminy churchy but, his 
health giving way, resigned in 1848. He died the 
year after, March 22, 1849, at the residence of his 
son, the present respected secretary of the Board 
of Church Erection. 

Dr. Wilson was stated clerk of the Synod of 
Philadelphia (Old School) for twenty-three years, 
up to the date of his decease, and the minutes 
w^ere beautifully kept. He was tall and athletic, 
and of dignified presence. He was an able and 
forcible preacher, solely intent on the good of his 
hearers. He was of a frank and fearless disposi- 
tion, and carried his abhorrence of duplicity to the 
verge of severity and obstinacy."^ 

Dr, Robert Cathcart was born November, 1759, 
near Coleraine, Ireland. He was educated in 
the College of Glasgow, and after being licensed 
preached several years without a fixed charge, till 
1790, wdien he emigrated to the United States. 
Declining other overtures, he was settled October, 
1793, over the united churches of York and Hope- 
well, Pa., fifteen miles apart, which he served on 
alternate Sundays. When the infirmities of age 
told on him, he relinquished the Hopewell church, 
conamonly known as the York Barrens. In 1839 
he was forced to resign the York church also, after 
■^ Sprague's " Annals," iv. 300. 



84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

a pastoral connection of forty-six years. He ex- 
pired suddenly^ October 19, 1849, at the advanced 
age of ninety years. 

Dr. Cathcart was an instructive, doctrinal preach- 
er, fond of expository preaching as well as of lec- 
turing on the catechism. After preaching Sunday 
morning in the Barrens, he has been known to ride 
home and deliver in York one of his interesting lec- 
tures on the Shorter Catechism. He paid great 
attention to examining his flock in the Barrens 
(both young and old) on the catechism. He was 
regarded as a well-read theologian, and kept abreast 
wHth the knowledge of the times. He W'as espe- 
cially remarkable for his clock-work punctuality, 
wdiether as trustee of Dickinson College, as mem- 
ber of the Synod of Philadelphia, or in attendance 
on the General Assembly. He never missed a 
meeting of the Synod but once, and that was occa- 
sioned by sickness. For twenty years he served as 
one of the clerks of the Assembly. He v/as so 
constant in his attendance, whether a commissioner 
or not, that Dr. Green once called him the stand- 
ing representative of his Presbytery. 

Although Dr. Cathcart was consulted by other 
authors, lie never gave anything to the press but 
one sermon, which was a tribute to the memory of 
his friend Dr. Davidson, of Carlisle.* 

Dr, Cornelius C. Ciiyler was born at Albany, of 
an honored Dutch ancestry, February 15, 1783. He 
^ Sprague's "Annals," iii. 559. 



SYKOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 85 

graduated at Union College in 1806, and studied 
theology under Drs. Livingston and Bassett. He 
was ordained pastor of the Reformed Dutch church 
in Poughkeepsie January 2, 1809. Numerous re- 
vivals occurred under his ministry. He declined 
several flattering invitations; but in obedience to 
the apparent call of Providence^ he accepted a call 
to the Second Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, 
and was installed January 14, 1834. Here he con- 
tinued till his death, which occurred August 31, 
1850, when he was in the sixty-eighth year of his 
age. From causes inscrutable his ministry was not 
so signally fruitful here as in his precedent charge. 
It is worthy of notice that a like diminution of 
success followed the transference of Gilbert Ten- 
nent. Dr. John McDowell and Dr. Joseph H. 
Jones. 

Dr. Cuyler was of noble appearance, being six 
feet two inches in height. He had a remarkably 
w^ell-balanced mind. He was dignified, yet afl^able, 
an elegant scholar and a perfect gentleman. Plis 
sermons were carefully written, his style was lucid 
and perspicuous, his delivery sober and free from 
extravagances. His deathbed was truly edifying. 
His published writings consisted of a number of 
occasional sermons and several tracts."^' 

Dr, Archibald Alexander seems to be the prop- 
erty of the Church at large, yet it is well to remem- 

■^ " Presbyterian Magazine/^ v. 219; Sprague's "Annals," 
iv. 432. 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

ber here that before his going to Princeton he was 
a member of the Synod of Philadelphia. 

He was born near Lexington, Ya., April 17, 
1772. His classical and theological studies were 
conducted under Rev. Mr. Graham, of Liberty 
Hall, afterward Washington College. He was 
licensed at the early age of nineteen ; and on ex- 
pressing his diffidence. Presbytery assigned him for 
a text, " Say not I am a child. '^ Jer. i. 7. After 
spending a year or more in missionary labor, ac- 
cordins: to the rules of the Synod, he was ordained 
pastor of Briery church November 7, 1794. Li 
1796 he was chosen president of Hampden-Sidney 
College at the age of twenty-four. May 20, 1807, 
he was installed over Pine Street church, Philadel- 
phia. In 1807, being thirty-five, he was elected 
moderator of the General Assembly, and in his 
sermon made the suf>:o:estion of a theolo2:ical semi- 
nary. In 1812 he was appointed professor in the 
theological seminary just established at Princeton. 
Here he remained for the rest of his life, mould- 
ing during forty years the studies and characters 
of two generations of ministers. His name was 
widely knov/n in other lands as well as our own. 
When the late Dr. Thomas Smythe, of Charleston, 
was a student in Highbury, England, and thought 
of coming to America, he asked his professors to 
what seminary he should direct his steps. They 
told him by all means to go where Drs. Alex- 
ander and Miller were. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 87 

Dr. Alexander died October 22^ 1851, in the 
eightieth year of his age; but like Moses, his* eye 
was not dim nor the natural force of his mental 
abilities abated.* 

As an experimental preacher Dr. Alexander was 
unrivaled and inimitable, and I do not know but 
that I might add, indescribable. His preaching 
was characterized by great vivacity as well as sub- 
tle knowledge of human nature. Wisdom was his 
most conspicuous attribute. His knowledge of 
ministers and churches was encyclopaedic. His 
general manner was very quiet and unassuming, 
but he could be exceedingly tart and cutting to the 
conceited and forward. An impartial biographer 
must admit the fact that he was very sensitive to 
the influence of the east ivind. 

Dr. Alexander's published writings were too 
voluminous here to recite. We may only mention 
his '' History of the Colonization Society,'^ " Evi- 
dences of the Christian Religion,'^ " Thoughts on 
Religion,^' ^' Counsels to the Aged,'' etc. Some 
might think it of additional interest to mention 
that he married the daughter of Dr. James Wad- 
dell, Wirt's celebrated blind preacher, and that he 
was the father of those eminent men. Dr. James W. 

■^ At the time of his death the Synod of New Jersey were in 
session in Princeton, and attended his funeral in a body, say- 
ing, ^'Alas, my father! the chariots of Israel and the horse- 
men thereof!'^ The coffin was borne to the grave by his former 
pupils. 



88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Alexander, the prince of preachers, and Dr. J. Ad- 
dison Alexander, the prince of exegetes."^ 

Dr. Daniel L, Carroll was born in Fayette 
county, Pa., May 10, 1797. After surmounting 
great difficulties in the way of getting an education, 
he graduated at Jefferson College in 1823, being 
twenty-six years old. He then took the three 
years' course in Princeton Seminary, and six 
months additional. He was settled over a Con- 
gregational church in Litchfield, Conn., October, 
1827. March 4, 1829, he was installed over the 
First Presbyterian church in Brooklyn, L. I., but 
in 1S35 resigned on account of throat-ail, and ac- 
cepted the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College, 
Va. In 1838, on account of theological difficulties, 
he resigned, and accepted a call to the First church 
of the Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, where he 
remained till 1844, when ill health compelled him to 
relin(piish the charge. After a brief toiir of service 
for the Colonization Society, he died in Philadelphia 
November 23, 1851, in the fifty-fifth year of his 
age. As a preacher Dr. Carroll was very popular, 
and preached to crowded houses. He had a refined 
taste, lively imagination and nervous organization. 
He excelled on the platform. He published two 
volumes of sermons, besides occasional discourses, f 

David McConaughy, D. D., LL. D., was born in 

^Spragne's "Annals/' iii. 612; Wilson's " Presb. Hi.st. 
Alrn.," V. 51. 

f Sprague's " Annals," iv. 697. 



i 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 89 

Adams county^ Pa.^ September 29^ 1775. He was 
educated under Mr, Dobbins, of Gettysburg, and 
graduated in Dickinson College September, 1795, 
in the same class with Chief-Justice Taney, Judge 
Kennedy and Dr. Joshua Williams. He studied 
theology with the Eev. Nathan Grier, of Brandy- 
wine, and was ordained pastor of Upper Marsh 
Creek (now Gettysburg) and Upper Conewago Oc- 
tober 8, 1800. In 1832 he was inaugurated pres- 
ident of AYashington College. After eighteen years 
of service he resigned in 1849. He died Jan- 
uary 29, 1852, in the seventy-seventh year of his 
age. 

Dr. McConaughy was a solid and thoughtful 
preacher, but not attractive in delivery. He ex- 
celled in pastoral capacity, and was held in univer- 
sal esteem as a good man. He spoke but little in 
the judicatories of the Church. As a president he 
exhibited accurate scholarship, dignified deport- 
ment and paternal care of his pupils. He published 
several occasional discourses and two volumes of 
sacred biography.'^ 

Bev. lilchard Webster was born in Albany, July 
14, 1811. He early became a subject of convert- 
ing grace. His passion for books was probably 
developed or at least nourished by the circumstaace 
of his father being a bookseller. He graduated 
at Union College in 1829, and at Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1834. He was anxious to 
* Sprague's '' Aimais," iv. 199. 



90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

go on a foreign mission to India, but his deafness 
proved an insurmountable obstacle. He then de- 
termined to devote himself to missionary labors at 
home. He began his career at South Easton, but 
shortly after organized a church at Mauch Chunk, 
November 1, 1835, over which he was settled as 
pastor. His labors were not confined to this spot, 
but extended over the coal region in the counties 
of Lehigh, Northampton, Columbia, etc. He aided 
in founding a dozen churches, and was the father 
of Luzerne Presbytery. He died June 19, 1856, 
in the forty-fifth year of his age. 

When it was announced to him that he was 
dying, he expressed his doubts, because he felt 
naturally, and in the full possession of all his 
faculties. ^^ If it be death, it is such a death as I 
have never dreamed of. I never dreamed of such 
a heaven. It is most glorious ; but, what is won- 
derful, it is not strange. It is only a brighter 
home.'^ Such was the euthanasia of this excellent 
man, expiring in the prime of his life. 

Mr. Webster had a tenacious memory, a fondness 
for antiquarian lore and a familiarity with the de- 
tails of Church history that was astonishing. His 
deafness and nearsightedness drove him to solitary 
studies, particularly in the line of historical re- 
search. He had poetical gifts, but published 
nothing. He was genial and social, given to 
sportive and satirical sallies, full of anecdote and 
sparkling wit; yet, withal, a man of prayer, sub- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 91 

mitting with patience to his lot^ and exemplary as 
a pastor^ attentive and tender in affliction. He 
was a frequent correspondent for the religious 
periodicals^ under the signature of K. H. He 
prepared a ^^ Digest of the Acts of the General 
Assembly/^ and materials for a ^^ History of the 
Presbyterian Church/^ published as a posthumous 
w^ork by the Presbyterian Historical Society.* 

Dr, Jacob J, Janeioay was born in New York^ 
November 20^ 1774. He graduated at Columbia 
College in 1794^ and studied theology with the 
celebrated Dutch divine Dr. Livingston. He was 
ordained colleague of Dr. Green in the Second 
Presbyterian churchy Philadelphia^ in 1799. For 
thirteen years they worked together with unbroken 
harmony. When Dr. Green was made president 
of the College of New Jersey, Dr. Skinner was 
chosen colleague to Dr. Janeway ; but the harmo- 
ny was not so uninterrupted. The junior pastor 
warmly espoused the New School views, the senior 
pastor maintained the Old. In 1816 Dr. Skinner^ 
with fifty of the members, parted to build up a new 
enterprise, the Arch Street church. In 1818 Dr. 
Janeway was elected moderator of the General As- 
sembly. In 1828 he accepted a professorship in 
the new theological seminary at Allegheny, Pa., but 
relinquished it in a year in consequence of prop- 
erty difficulties. In 1830 he was installed over the 

^ "Biographical Sketch '^ by Dr. Van Eensselaer, prefixed 
to Webster's ''' History .'' 



92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

First Dutch Reformed church in New Brunswick^ 
N. J., which position he held only t\70 years on ac- 
count of ill health. In 1833 he was appointed vice- 
president of Rutgers College. This post he resigned 
on reuniting with the Presbyterian Church. From 
this time forward he took no heavier burdens on 
himself than serving in the Boards of the Church 
and of Princeton Seminary^ and also as trustee of 
Nassau Hall. In the discharge of these duties he 
was unsurpassed for assiduity and punctuality. Plis 
death occurred June 27^ 1858, in the eighty-fourth 
year of his age. 

As a preacher Dr. Janeway was didactic and me- 
thodical, avoiding the flowery paths of rhetoric. 
On all public occasions he acquitted himself credit- 
ably. His figure was portly and his countenance 
benevolent. He was singularly self-poised and 
unimpassioned. When the tornado of 1837 blew 
his chimneys down and twisted his old elms, he 
merely said to the assembled crowd, in his usual 
imperturbable manner, ^^ This has been a consider- 
able blow.'* 

Dr. Janeway published ^^ Letters on the Atone- 
ment,'' '^Communicants' Manual,'' etc.'^ 

Mev, IViillam McCalla was born in Jessamine 
county, Kentucky, November 25, 1788. He was 
^^a man of war from his youth.'' Pie seemed to 
have adopted Psalm cxliv. 1 for his motto: 
'' Blessed be the Lord which teacheth my hands 

^ '' Presbyterian Magazine," iii. 237. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 93 

to war^ and my fingers to fight/' At liis examin- 
ation before the Presbytery of West Lexington 
he had a political altercation with the venerable 
Dr. Blythe. In 1815 he was appointed an army 
chaplain by General Jackson. In 1819 he was 
settled as pastor of the church in Augusta, Ken- 
tucky. In 1823 he was settled over the Eighth 
or Scots' church, Philadelphia, where his ministry 
was very successful. In 1835 he felt impelled to 
travel in Texas, and amin served as an armv chaD- 
lain, dressing in clerical costume a.nd living in a 
tent. In 1837 he returned to Philadelphia, and 
labored successively in the Fourth, Tabernacle 
and Union churches. In 1854 he engaged in 
missionary labor in St. Louis among the boatmen, 
and afterv>^ard among the slaves in the South. He 
died in Louisiana, of congestive chills, October 12, 
1859, in the seventy-first year of his age. 

Mr. McCalla was of a tall and commanding per- 
son, w^ith black hair and eyes and a clarion voice. 
He was more or less familiarly acquainted with the 
Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and 
German languages. He preached without notes, 
and had a wonderful command of language. But 
it w^as in debate that he excelled. In polemics he 
w^as a master. This he abundantly exemplified in 
his debates with Mr. Vaughn and Alexander Camp- 
bell, Baptists, in Kentucky; with William Lane, 
an Arian Baptist, in Milford; with John Hughes, 
afterward archbishop, the Roman Catholic ; with 



94 BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Abner Kneeland^ the atheist; and with Joseph Bar- 
ker^ the infidel^ which last now preaches the faith 
he once labored to destroy. In the long contro- 
versy between the Old and Xew Schools he kept 
up his character for pugnacity^ ability and power 
of sarcasm. He carried his boasts of his Kentucky 
birth to a foible. He had an uncommon power of 
self-control^ and could say the most diverting or 
the most cutting things without changing a muscle. 
In the fiercest contests he remained perfectly cool. 
Dr. Miller remarked of him that he was smooth as 
oil, but it was the oil of vitriol. 

Mr. McCalla's only publications were '^A Cor- 
rect Narrative'^ of the affairs connected with the 
trial of the Rev. Albert Barnes, a small collection 
of psalms and hymns in French, and ^' Travels in 
Texas.'^^ 

Although Mr. McCalla exhibited such decided 
polemical tendencies in public, he was social and 
agreeable in private. Unbending as he was, in his 
principles as in his person, no one could deny his 
honesty or doubt his perfect conscientiousness. In 
his early life he was disposed to be rigidly ascetic, 
insisting that Christian people should avoid extrav- 
agance, and setting the example by selling his ow^n 
furniture for what was plainer and cheaper. 

Dr, William Neill was born in AVestern Pennsyl- 
vania in 1778, amid the hardships of frontier life, 

■^ " Life of Dr. George Junkin/' Appendix, p. 586 ; " Eemi- 
niscences." 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 95 

both his parents being massacred by the Indians. 
He graduated at I^assau Hall in 1803. He was 
ordained over the church in Cooperstown in 1805. 
In 1809 he was called to the First church of Al- 
bany^ in 1816 to the Sixth church of Philadel- 
phia^ the seceding portion from Dr. Ely's church. 
In 1815 he was chosen moderator of the General 
Assembly. In 1824 he was made president of 
Dickinson College. That position did not prove a 
bed of roses, and he became in 1829 secretary of 
the Board of Education. In 1831 he took charge of 
the Germantown church, and raised it to a flourish- 
ing condition. In 1842 he retired from all active 
labors. In 1860 he departed this life, aged eighty- 
two years. 

Dr. Neill was tall and dignified. As a clergy- 
man he was highly esteemed. His style was per- 
spicuous, and even elegant. Dr. D. X. Junkin 
styled him '^the venerable and lovely Dr. William 
Neill."^ As a college functionary he was conscien- 
tious and faithful, and the students respected his 
evident piety, while they smiled at his grave for- 
mality. Besides occasional discourses, he pub- 
lished an exposition of the Epistle to the Ephe- 
sians. f 

Dr. Francis Herron wtis born near Shippensburg, 
Pa., June 28, 1774. He graduated at Dickinson Col- 
lege under Dr. Nisbet in 1794, and studied theology 

- "Life of Dr. George Junkin/' p. 148. 
t Gillett's '' Historv," i. 483. 



96 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

with Dr. Cooper. He was licensed by the Presby- 
tery of Carlisle^ October 4^ 1797. For three years 
he was occupied in missionary labor in the West 
as far as Chillicothe, traveling much of the time 
through an unbroken wilderness. April 9^ 1800^ 
he was ordained and installed pastor of Rocky 
Spring church by the Presbytery of Carlisle. His 
previous training and experience in revivals made 
his ministry here for ten years a blessing. But the 
people of Pittsburg gave him such a pressing invi- 
tation to labor among them that he felt it his duty 
to accept their call, and accordingly was installed 
over the First church of Pittsburg by Redstone 
Presbytery in June, 1811. His warm and spiritual 
style of preaching soon stirred up opposition on the 
part of worldlings, but no threats or hostility could 
turn the faithful man of God from his duty. When 
the church edifice had to be sold by the sheriff for 
debt, he stepped forward and bought it in his own 
name. He then sold part of the ground for more 
than the debt, and relieved the church from its lia- 
bilities. The church now entered on a new era of 
prosperity, both financial and spiritual, and revival 
on revival followed. Among other enterprises of 
a useful character, Dr. Herron's influence secured 
the location of the Western Theological Seminary 
at .4.11eghany City. He was elected moderator of 
the General Assembly in 1827. PTis years and ex- 
ertions at length began to tell on him; and in 1850, 
when he was in his seventy-sixth year, his people 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 97 

reluctantly accepted his resignation. The rest of 
his life was spent in serenity and peace and ripen- 
ing for heaven. His death was a euthanasia. Pie 
died December 6^ 1860, in the eighty-sixth year of 
his age. 

It is difficult to do justice to such a life and cha- 
racter as Dr. Herron^s. It consisted so much in 
activity and influence, and so little in merely lite- 
rary labor, that we are necessitated to judge more 
l)y its results than by anything else. But judging 
in this way, we cannot but form the most exalted 
opinion of this aged patriarch. As Dr. Paxton 
said of him, "he was a man of nerve, will and 
power, moulding rather than being moulded, breast- 
ing the current rather than floating upon its sur- 
face.'^ Nature did much for him by giving him 
an unusually elegant and imposing form. Grace 
did more by filling his soul with zeal for God and 
love for the souls of men.* 

3fr, Nicholas Mwiny was born in Armagh county, 
Ireland, December 25, 1802. At the age of six- 
teen he resolved to come to the Western w^orld to 
seek his fortune, and found a situation in the pub- 
lishing establishment of the well-known Harper 
Brothers, New York. He had been brought up a 
Roman Catholic ; but having his attention arrested 
by the preaching of Dr. John M. Mason, he began 
to examine for himself, and the result w^as his con- 
version to Protestantism. He was now" persuaded 
* Wilson's " Historical Almanac/' iv. 95. 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

to study for the ministry^ and graduated at Wil- 
liams College, Massachusetts, under Dr. Griffin. 
After spending some time in the service of the 
American Tract Society, he graduated at Princeton 
Theological Seminary in 1829, when he was licensed 
by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. He was or- 
dained and installed pastor of the Wilkesbarre 
church, November, 1829, by the Presbytery of Sus- 
quehanna. July 23, 1833, he was installed pastor 
of the First church, Elizabethtown, N. J., where 
" his profiting appeared to all,'^ and where in the 
midst of his usefulness he was smitten with rheu- 
matism of the heart, and expired, after a brief ill- 
ness, February 11, 1861. 

Dr. Murray's merits were familiar to the Church 
at large. He w^as chosen moderator of the Gen- 
eral Assembly in 1849. Besides numerous calls to 
churches, he was appointed to two theological pro- 
fessorships, the secretaryship of the Board of For- 
eign Missions and general agency of the American 
Tract Society for the valley of the Mississippi. 

Dr. Murray had a strong, clear, practical mind, 
and his style of preaching was more instructive 
than imaginative. He was endowed with a native, 
racy, ready wit, savoring of his mother-country, 
which sometimes in controversy flashed up in scath- 
ing irony and sarcasm. 

His published works are the celebrated " Kirwan 
Letters on Popery,'' in two series, originally pub- 
lished in the New York "Observer;" "Travels in 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 99 

Europe f' " Home ;" " Driftwood f " Thoughts on 
Preaching and Preachers f and a posthumous set 
of discourses on " Things Unseen and Eternal/^"^ 

Dr, Ezra Styles Ely was born in Lebanon^ Con- 
necticut^ June 13, 1786. He made a profession of 
religion at the age of twelve. He graduated at 
Yale College in 1803^ and his theological stud- 
ies were conducted under the direction of his 
father^ Rev. Zebulon Ely. He ^Yas licensed in 
1804^ and ordained by Westchester Presbytery pas- 
tor of Colchester (Congregational) churchy Conn., 
in 1806. He was taken from this charge to act as 
chaplain to the New York City Hospital. In 1813 
he was installed pastor of Pine Street churchy Phil- 
adelphia, as successor of Dr. Alexander, removed to 
Princeton, but his strong anti-Hopkinsian tenets 
led to the division of the church. His activity in 
all schemes of charity and benevolence was bound- 
less. Jefferson Medical College owes its existence 
in a great measure to him as one of its trustees, for 
in its pecuniary straits he bought the lot and erected 
the building where the institution now stands. 
From 1825 until 1836 he was stated clerk of the 
General Assembly ; and if ever any one '^ magnified 
his ofBce,'^ it v>'as Dr. Ely. He seemed to consider 
himself as the embodiment of the Assembly and 
the centre of affairs, especially during the recess. 
In 1828 he vfas chosen moderator of the General 
Assembly. 

^ Wilson's " Historical Almanac," iv. 105. 



100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

In 1834 his eDthiisiasm led him to embark as an 
active patron of Marion College^ in Missouri. It 
was started as a manual labor college^ and the 
crops of liay and onions were expected to defray 
all expenses. A large number of students was col- 
lected, but finally the scheme proved an utter fail- 
ure. Dr. Ely sunk his whole fortune in it, and 
involved others. For a time his character for in- 
tegrity suffered^ but at length it was admitted to 
have been no worse than a financial blunder. In 
1844 Dr. Ely took charge of the church of the 
Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. He retained 
this post till struck down by paralysis^ August, 
1851. He was afflicted by that form of paralysis 
known as aphasia, or inability to utter the right 
words. He died, a wreck in mind and body, June 
18,1861. 

Dr. Ely was of a mercurial temperament, which 
was never completely overcome in or out of the pul- 
pit. But his oddities only provoked a smile, and 
never aroused indignation. No one w^nt to sleep 
under his preaching. It has been estimated that he 
was the means of the conversion of two thousand 
two hundred ])ersons. He was a generous and 
open-handed man. There is good reason for be- 
lieving that his benefactions during his lifetime 
amounted to nearly $50,000. 

His published works were, '' Visits of Mercy,'^ 
^^The Contrast'^ (anti-Hopkinsian, answered by 
Whelpley's ^^ Triangle"), ^^ Collateral Bible/^ me- 



p\ 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 101 

morial of his father^ Eev. Zebulon Ely^ and the 
religious weekly, " The Philadelphian/^"^' Dr. Ely 
wrote also a " History of the Churches of Phila- 
delphia/' which is in manuscript and unpublished. 

Dr, Benjamin J. Wallace was born in Erie, 
Pennsylvania, June 10, 1810. He made a pro- 
fession of religion in his twelfth year. In 1827, 
after trying law and clerkship, he entered West 
Point as a military cadet, but believing himself 
called to a higher service, he left West Point, and 
studied theology in Princeton Seminary. Here 
he felt himself at home. In 1834 he was settled 
in Russellville, Kentucky. In 1837 he was in- 
stalled over the church in York, Pennsylvania. 
Here he was soon involved in a lawsuit for the 
possession of the church property between the 
New and Old School parties, which was ended in 
favor of the former by the famous decision of 
Chief-Justice Gibson. In 1846 he was elected 
professor of languages in Newark College, Dela- 
ware. In 1852 he was selected as editor of the 
"Presbyterian Quarterly Eeview.^^ He died, a 
great sufferer from neuralgia, July 25, 1862. 

Dr. Wallace's style, both as a preacher and re- 
viewer, was characterized by great vivacity and fresh- 
ness. He was very active in ecclesiastical affairs. 
His last words were, " I move into the light.^^ f 

^ Wilson's '^ Presbyterian Historical Almanac,*' iv. 180 ; Gil- 
lett's " History," ii. 435, 

f Wilson's " Presbyterian Historical Almanac," v. 311. 



102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Dr. John McDoioell was born in Bedminster, 
New Jersey, September 10, 1780. He graduated 
at Nassau Hall, September, 1801, and studied 
theology with Dr. John Woodhull, of Freehold, 
New Jersey. Passing through Elizabethtown, he 
was unexpectedly asked to preach, and made such 
an impression, though a stranger without introduc- 
tion or credentials, that he was invited to remain. 
Accordingly, he was ordained December 26, 1804. 
Frequent and powerful revivals occurred under 
his ministry. In twenty-eight years and a half, 
the additions to the church, on profession of faith, 
were nine hundred and twenty-one. But his health 
requiring a change, he removed to take charge of 
the new Central church of Philadelphia, June 6, 
1833. On this occasion the elder who represented 
the Elizabethtown church before the Presbytery 
made an eloquent remonstrance against their pastor^s 
removal, but in vain. Said he: ^^ He has received 
us into the church, he has married us, he has bap- 
tized our children, he has buried our dead, and when 
we die we want him to be buried amongst us and 
break ground for us on the morning of the resur- 
rection.^^ Dr. McDowell remained in the Central 
church for twelve and half years, but his ministry 
was not crowned with the same success as before. 
The apple of discord was thrown among the peo- 
ple, and he had committed the unpardonable sin 
of growing old. He resigned November 20, 1845. 
But in three weeks he started a new church, the 



SYXOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 103 

Spring Garden churclij and was followed by one 
hundred and thirty-six of his former parishioners. 
Over this congregation he was installed February 
3, 1846. At this time the ground in the vicinity 
was entirely vacant ; it was border territory. But 
simultaneously w^ith the new church — propter hoc 
as w^ell as post hoc, as I have often observed when 
Protestant churches are erected — a new population 
gradually poured in^ and now the ground is covered 
with blocks on blocks of handsome buildings as 
far as the eye can see. This w^as the house whose 
roof was crushed by a heavy fall of snow in 1851. 
Here Dr. McDowell labored with gratifying success 
till his death, w^hich took place from natural decay, 
February, 1863, at the age of eighty-three. In 
1861 the late Mr. Sutphen had been brought in as 
a colleague to relieve him. 

Dr. McDowell's life was so protracted that he 
had the opportunity of taking part in all the great 
institutions of the Church and benevolent societies. 
In 1820 he was made moderator of the General 
Assembly. From 1836 till 1840 he served as 
stated clerk. 

Dr. McDowell was a plain, practical, systematic 
preacher, w^ho never sacrificed to the graces. As 
a pastor he was unrivaled. One thousand three 
hundred and seventeen persons were brought into 
the several churches to Avhich he ministered on 
profession of faith. Dr. McDowelFs was not a 
brilliant but a well-rounded life, complete and 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

admirably proportioned. He was never out of 
his place^ and, without the slightest pretension, was 
extensively useful. Signally memorable was his 
founding a new and prosperous church at the age 
of sixty-five, when his usefulness had been flip- 
pantly pronounced at an end. It was a verifica- 
tion of the promise, ^^ They shall still bring forth 
fruit in old age.^' Ps. xcii. 14. We are reminded 
of the recent allusion to the possible opportunities 
of age by our popular poet : 

"What then ? Shall we sit idly down and say 
The night hath come, it is no longer day ? 
The night hath not yet come ; we are not quite 
Cut off from labor by the failing light. 
Something remains for us to do or dare : 
Even the oldest tree same fruit may bear. 
For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress, 
And as the evening twilight fades away 
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.""'^ 

Dr. McDowell's published works were a ^^ Sys- 
tem of Theology/' in two volumes, a ^^ Bible-Class 
Manual,'' in two volumes, and "Bible-Class Ques- 
tions," the first of the kind ever used.f 

Dr, Tliomas Brainerd sprang from an old 
English family that had emigrated to Haddam, 
Connecticut, in 1649. The celebrated missionary 
brothers David and John Brainerd, and the poet 
John G. C. Brainerd, were of the same stock. The 

^ Longfellow's " Morituri Salutamus." 

f Wilson's '' Presbyterian Historical Almanac," vi, 175. 



SYNOD OF PPIILADELPHIA. 105 

subject of this sketch was born June 17, 1804, in 
Leyden, Lewis county, N. Y. He early showed 
a fondness for reading, but had not the opportunity 
of studying at any college. At the age of seven- 
teen he taught school, and afterward studied law in 
Rome, N. Y. He was converted under Mr. Fin- 
ney's preaching in 1825, and soon after, under the 
pressure of a sore affliction, he gave up the law for 
the gospel ministry. To obtain the means of study 
he taught a school for a year in the northern part 
of Philadelphia. After a three years' course in 
Andover Seminary, he was ordained by the Third 
Presbytery of New York, and immediately turned 
his face westward with a commission from the 
Home Missionary Society. His first charge was in 
the suburbs of Cincinnati, the Fourth church, in 
November, 1831. In 1833 he was associated with 
Dr. Lyman Beech er in the Second church, and as- 
sumed the editorship of the " Cincinnati Journal.'^ 
In March, 1837, he was installed over the Third, 
or Old Pine Street, church, Philadelphia, where he 
remained for the rest of his life, nearly thirty years. 
In the year 1864 he was made moderator of the 
General Assembly, New School. 

His last public service v»'as at Easton, July 22, 
1866. Dr. Brainerd was invited by the Brainerd 
Evangelical Society of the college to deliver an 
address in the Brainerd church, on the very spot, 
the forks of the Delaware, trodden by the feet of 
those holy men David and John Brainerd a cen- 



106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

tury before. Thence he went to visit his married 
daughter at Scranton, and for a fortnight gave rest 
to his body and mind. August 21, 1866, he took 
a long walk, and also engaged in an exciting dis- 
cussion, and retired early, complaining of fatigue. 
At one o'clock his wife was awakened by his ster- 
torous breathing, but before assistance could be 
summoned he expired, the victim of apoplexy, 
that disease fatal to so many brain-workers. On 
the day of his funeral the stores in the neighbor- 
hood were closed, the bell of St. Peter's (Episcopal) 
church was tolled, the clergy of various denomina- 
tions took part in the services, and the poor colored 
people in the alleys hung their bits of crape to their 
doors in memory of their steadfast friend. 

Dr. Brainerd could not be called a learned or 
profound scholar, but he was a man of intense zeal 
and activity. " Quicquid egit, fortiter egit^^ Ner- 
vous and impulsive in the highest degree, he was 
ready with voice or pen for every emergency. He 
was the promoter of several new church enterprises 
in the city of Philadelphia, while no one could say 
^^his ov/n vineyard he had not kept,'^ for from 
his quarter-century sermon it appears that he had 
admitted a thousand communicants into the Old 
Pine Street Church. He was equally at home at 
the monster prayer-meetings in Jayne's Hall, rally- 
ing his fellow-citizens to the support of the national 
flag, cheering and encouraging hundreds of thou- 
sands of volunteers at the Union Refreshment Sa- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 107 

loon^ or leading the devotions of the countless 
multitudes at the loyal rejoicings in Independence 
Square. 

He contributed abundantly to the daily and 
weekly press, as well as to the " Presbyterian Quar- 
terly Review.'^ He also published a '^ Life of John 
Brainerd/^ and a score of discourses in pamphlet 
form."^ 

Rev, William 3L Engles, D, D., was born in Phil- 
adelphia, October 12, 1797. He graduated at the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1815, studied the- 
ology with Dr. S. B. Wylie, and was licensed by 
the Presbytery of Philadelphia, October 18, 1818. 
July 6, 1820, he was ordained pastor of the Sev- 
enth, or Tabernacle, church, in Ranstead court, 
afterward famous as the scene of the disruption. 
Here his ministry was faithful and successful, but 
in 1834 he was obliged to resign on account of 
throat-ail. From the pulpit he stepped into the 
editorial chair, succeeding Dr. James Vf . Alexan- 
der as editor of the " Presbyterian,^^ in which post 
he continued for thirty-three years. Under his 
supervision the paper attained an increased circula- 
tion and a high reputation as the leading organ of 
the Old School party. In May, 1838, he was ap- 
pointed editor of the Board of Publication, which 
post he held for twenty-five years. In 1840 he 
was chosen moderator of the General Assembly, 
Old School, and then filled the office of stated 
"^ " Life of Dr. Thomas Brainerd," by Mary Brainerd. 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

clerk for six years. His death was caused by heart 
disease, and occurred November 27, 1867. 

Dr. Eiigles owed his reputation more to his pen 
than to his pulpit efforts. He was too quiet and 
didactic to be a popular preacher. But to say noth- 
ing of his editorial success, to him the Board of 
Publication was more indebted than to any other 
individual, according to its own acknowledgment. 
He took an active part in its inception and progress. 
He not only rescued from oblivion various valuable 
works in danger of becoming obsolete, but added 
to the Board's issues a number of treatises from his 
own prolific pen. These were published anony- 
mously, and hence it is not here possible to specify 
them. I may, how^ever, mention the little volume 
entitled '' Sick-room Devotions,^' which has proved 
of inestimable service, and " The Soldiers' Pocket- 
book,'' of which three hundred thousand copies 
were circulated during the war. 

Dr, William R. De Witt was born at Rhinebeck, 
N. Y., February 25, 1792. His ancestors were 
among the first immigrants from Holland to New 
Netherlands in 1623. His early years were spent 
in commercial pursuits; but becoming a subject of 
divine grace w^ien eighteen years of age, he studied 
for the ministry with Dr. Alexander Proudfit, of 
Salem, N. Y. His studies w^re, however, inter- 
rupted by his patriotism, which led him to volun- 
teer in the war of 1812 against Great Britain. He 
witnessed Commodore McDonough's victory on 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 109 

Lake Champlaiii, September 11^ 1814. After the 
close of the war he graduated at Union College^ 
and completed his theological studies under Dr. 
John M. Mason, of New York. In 1818 he was 
called to the Presbyterian church of Harrisburg^ 
and installed the follow^ing year by the Presbytery 
of Carlisle. Though invited to settle elsewhere, 
he preferred not to change. His ministry was 
liighly successful, and the church under his care 
grew in numbers, efficiency and influence. For 
half a century he was a power in the surrounding 
region. ^^His name was a tower of strength.^^ 
In 1854 he felt the necessity of taking a colleague, 
Rev. T. H. Robinson, D. D., now his successor, 
and in 1865 was obliged to give up all active duties. 
Two years afterward, December 23, 1867, he quietly 
breathed his last, in the seventy-sixth year of his 
age. 

Dr. De Witt was a model preacher and pastor. 
He did not believe in zeal without knowledge ; and 
while he gathered large numbers into the church, 
he was careful to indoctrinate them thoroughly, not 
only from the pulpit, but by patient drilling in the 
Shorter Catechism. He was of a dignified presence, 
his voice w^as mellifluous and his manner w^as bland, 
persuasive and deferential. He knew" how to con- 
ceal the iron hand beneath the velvet glove. His 
position was peculiarly trying. Placed in the capi- 
tal of a great State, he was called to preach, not 
before an intelligent congregation only, but also 



110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

before multitudes of strangers from all parts of the 
country — before legislators^ high officers of govern- 
ment and members of the learned professions. But 
his pulpit preparations ^Yere always so carefully 
made that he commanded the respect and esteem 
of all classes. In consequence of his peculiar traits 
of character he was able to exert a quiet but potent 
influence over the leading minds with which he was 
brought in contact.* The Rev. John De Witt, of 
Boston^ is his son. 

Dr. George Duffield was born in Lancaster county, 
Pa., in 1794. At the precocious age of sixteen he 
graduated in the University of Pennsylvania, and 
then studied theology under Dr. John M. Mason 
in New York. In that famous school he learned, 
like all Dr. Mason^s pupils, to be an independent 
thinker. September 15, 1816, he v/as ordained 
over the church in Carlisle, which, from having lain 
vacant for several years, had become the prey of 
factions, so that piety was at a low ebb. The young 
minister's preaching was pungent, his views of disci- 
pline rigid and his will strong. Some took offence, 
but revival followed on revival, and during his nine- 
teen years' pastorate nearly seven hundred converts 
were added to the church. A visit to New England 
and Dr. Taylor is supposed to have wrought a change 
in his theological sentiments, which appeared in 
his preaching. He also published a book on ^^Re- 
generation,'' consisting of discourses previously de- 
^ Wilson's '' Historical Almanac/' vol. x., page 196. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. Ill 

livered from the pulpit^ which attracted the notice 
of his Presbytery and was condemned as erroneous. 
From this decision he appealed to the General As- 
sembly, but the appeal was not presented. This 
was in October^ 1832. The dissensions in the con- 
gregation waxed so warm that a number of fami- 
lies withdrew, and were organized into the Second 
church. In March, 1835, Dr. Duffield resigned 
his charge; and after brief settlements in Xew York 
and Philadelphia, he was installed over the church 
in Detroit, October 1, 1838. In 1862 he was 
chosen moderator of the General Assembly, New 
School, in Detroit. He remained in Detroit till 
his sudden death, in 1867, at the age of seventy- 
three. He died in the harness. He was delivering 
an address of welcome to the Young Men^s Chris- 
tian Association, when he was attacked by paralysis, 
and in a day or two after breathed his last. It is 
a noteworthy coincidence that three months pre- 
viously he had preached in Carlisle in the morning, 
his grandson in the afternoon and his son in the 
evening ; and it may be added that this remarkable 
coincidence occurred in the church of which his 
own grandfather had once been the pastor. Thus 
" instead of the fathers shall be the children.^^ 

As a preacher Dr. Duffield was a man of power, 
a Boanerges rather than a Barnabas. His style was 
diffuse, but impressive. His very recreations were 
of a grave kind, and in sickness he amused himself 
with works on mathematics. His enemies called 



112 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

him dogmatical^ but it is not to be denied that in 
his presence vice was abashed and profanity was 
reduced to silence. 

Dr. Duffield's pulpit so resounded with the 
thunders of the law that a lady once said she 
wished Dr. Duffield would remember there was 
such a text in the Bible as '' Comfort ye my peo- 
ple.^^ This was carried to his ears^ and the next 
Sunday he took it for his text. "Yes/' said he^ 
"it is the sweetest duty of ministers to comfort 
GocVs people/' and the lady was delighted at 
the prospect of hearing an old-fashioned gospel- 
sermon, when the preacher changed his tone and 
sternly added, " But for those who are not God's 
people there is no comfort." And the rest of the 
sermon was in harmony with this beginning. 

Dr. Duffield was of a scientific turn, and his 
writings were voluminous. Besides pamphlets 
and reviews on a variety of subjects, he published 
an octavo volume on " Regeneration," and a book 
entitled "Travels in Europe and the Holy Land."* 

George Junkin, D, D., LL,D,, sprung from a 
Cameron ian ancestry of the straitest sort, was 
born jSTovember 1, 1790, near Carlisle, in the 
lovely Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania. The 
family in 1806 removed to Mercer county, on 
the banks of the Neshannock. He graduated at 
Jefferson College, September, 1813. He then 
studied theology with Dr. Mason in New York. 
^ Dr. Wing's funeral discourse. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 113 

He filled missionary appointments for some time, 
as in the Thirteenth Street or Margaret Duncan 
church, Philadelphia, the history of which we 
cannot stop to narrate. October 17, 1819, he was 
settled over the Associate Reformed church in 
Milton, Pennsylvania, where the lines did not fall 
in pleasant places. In 1822 he entered the Pres- 
byterian connection, along with Dr. Mason and 
the great body of the Associate Reformed. In 
1830 he took charge of a manual-labor institution 
in Germantown. This brought him into the Pres- 
bytery of Philadelphia. In 1831 he was chosen 
moderator of the Synod of Philadelphia. His stay 
in this connection was short, for in 1832 he accepted 
the presidency of Lafayette College, and in April, 
1833, removed his membership to the Presbytery 
of Newton, in the Synod of New Jersey. June 
30, 1835, he undertook his famous prosecution of 
Albert Barnes for doctrinal error, before the Second 
Presbytery of Philadelphia. He justified his in- 
terference, though a member of another Presbytery 
and Synod, by stating his belief that the Second 
Presbytery had been formed for Mr. Barnes' sake, 
and there was no probability of any member of that 
Presbytery undertaking the task. The subsequent 
results have passed into history. In August, 1841, 
he was made president of the Miami University, 
Ohio. In 1844 he was elected moderator of the 
Old School General Assembly, and in the same 
year left Miami and resumed the presidency of 



114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Lafayette — -^^ lovely Lafayette/' as he was fond of 
calling it. In October^ 1848, he saw fit to accept 
the presidency of Washington College^ Virginia, 
whither twenty-six of his students followed him, 
and where he remained for twelve years. Then 
were kindled the flames of war. A secession flag 
was run up over the college in direct violation of 
his orders, and he resigned April 18, 1861. He 
died of angina pectoris, in Philadelphia, after a 
brief illness. May 20, 1868, aged 78 years. 

Dr. Junkin possessed a sturdy intellect, and was 
more remarkable for the vigorous grasp which he 
took of every subject he handled than for the va- 
riety or extent of his learning. Despising all affec- 
tation and dissiiiiulation, he w^as rather blunt and 
brusque in his manner, and often had a preoccupied 
air. In his preaching, which was without notes, he 
was exegetical and logical; and in spite of his low 
stature and remarkably shrill voice, he commanded 
the attention of his hearers. But his exertions and 
influence were not confined to the pulpit. He took 
an active part in promoting education, particularly 
the school system of Pennsylvania, emancipation, 
the national Union and temperance. 

Dr. Junkin was a voluminous author, flis pub- 
lished writings were ^^ Baptism,^' ^^The Prophe- 
cies,'^ ^^Justification,'' ^^ Sanctification," ^^Sabbatis- 
mos," ^^The Tabernacle," ^^The Vindication," 
'^ Political Fallacies," besides " Baccalaureate Ad- 
dresses," "Literary Addresses," "Occasional Dis- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 115 

courses/^ and a MS. commentary on Hebre^ys in 
seven hundred and fifty quarto pages^ which was 
written after his seventy-fifth year."^^ 

Rev. Albert Barnes was born in Rome, N. Y., 
December 1^ 1798. His preparatory studies were 
conducted in Fairfield Academy^ where he gave 
early promise of his abilities by composing, in con- 
nection with two fellow-students^ a tragedy in verse^ 
entitled " William Tell ; or, Switzerland Deliv- 
ered.^^ Who knows how near the distinguished 
commentator came to becoming a distinguished 
poet? When he entered Hamilton College, he was 
decidedly skeptical. But his skepticism was re- 
moved by reading Chalmers' article on Christianity 
in the '' Edinburgh Encyclopsedia/' and a revival 
in the coUeg^e beheld him amono; the converts. He 
renounced his intention to study law, and entered 
Princeton Theological Seminary in 1820. After 
taking the three years' course, he remained for sev- 
eral months as a resident graduate. In Pebruary, 
1825, he was installed pastor of the church in Mor- 
ristown, N. J. Here his ministry was very success- 
ful, and here he commenced the preparation of his 
commentaries. Dr. James W. Alexander had also 
entered on a similar work, at the request of the 
American Sunday-School Union, but learning Mr. 
Barnes' intentions, he gracefully yielded the field 
to him, pleading his own delicate health. 

June 30, 1830, Mr. Barnes accepted a call from 
■^ "Life of Dr. George Junkin/' by Dr. D. X. Junkin. 



116 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

the First Presbyterian church in Philadelphia^ and 
took the first step in a course which was to make his 
name historic^ in the face of a vehement opposition 
from some members of the Presbytery^ who con- 
sidered his recently published " Sermon on the Way 
of Salvation" unsound. Party feeling between the 
Old and Xew School rose higher and higher^ till at 
lengthy in 1835, Rev. Dr. George Junkin conceived 
it his duty to table charges against him on the 
ground of heterodoxy, as evinced in his commentary 
on Romans, etc. The Presbytery refusing to sus- 
tain these charges, Dr. Junkin appealed to the 
Synod, who censured Mr. Barnes and suspended 
him from the ministry. To this severe sentence 
he submitted without murmuring, abstaining from 
entering the pulpit on the Sabbath ; but he took 
an appeal to the next General Assembly in 1836. 
That Assembly, the Synod of Philadelphia being 
out of the house, reversed the sentence and took off 
the suspension. From this time the altercations 
grew more and more bitter, till, in 1838, the work 
of schism was complete, and the seamless coat of 
Christ was torn in twain. It is proper here to add 
that w^hen the time for reunion arrived in 1870, 
Mr. Barnes took one of the first preliminary steps 
to facilitate it by gracefully offering to withdraw 
his books from the shelves of the Publication Com- 
mittee. And I suppose I may state still further, 
that at the time of his demise so much had the bit- 
terness of controversy subsided that his loss was 



kSyxod of philadet.phia. 117 

lamented as sincerely by his brethren of the Old 
School division as by those of his own. 

In 1849 Mr. Barnes was invited to a professor- 
ship in Lane Seminary, W'hich he saw fit to decline. 
In 1851 the General Assembly (New" School) man- 
ifested their appreciation of their favorite champion 
and Coryphaeus by making him moderator. About 
this time his eyes began to fail, and for a time he 
had to forego the pleasure of reading and writing. 
Notwithstanding a trip to Europe and the em- 
ployment of assistants in the pulpit, this infirmity 
increased to such a degree that in 1868, having 
reached the age of seventy, he resigned his charge, 
much against his people^s wishes. To the kvSt, 
hoW'Cver, he continued to preach occasionally in the 
churches, and regularly in the House of Refuge, of 
wdiich he was a manawr. Althouo;:h the cono;re2i:a- 
tion made him pastor emeritus, the distance from 
the church of his residence in West Philadelphia 
prevented him from rendering them much service, 
and he decidedly refused to receive anything in the 
way of salary. 

At length the end drew^ near. The call to his re- 
w^ard surprised him in the performance of a sacred 
and tender duty. On December 24, 1870, he walked 
a mile to administer consolation to a bereaved fam- 
ily, but had scarcely seated himself when he expe- 
rienced a difficulty of breathing, and suddenly fall- 
ing back in his chair, expired without a struggle. 

Mr. Barnes^ fame rests chiefly on his ^^Commen- 



118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 

tarles/^ of which a million copies have been circu- 
lated in America and Great Britain^ and transla- 
tions have been made into several foreign languages. 
He published a variety of books and pamphlets on 
other subjects. His two discourses^ " Life at Three- 
score'^ and ^^ Life at Threescore and Ten/^ are 
among the most charming autobiographies the world 
has ever seen ; they show beautifully how religion 
can gild and cheer a Christian minister's closing 
years. 

Mr. Barnes rose at four o'clock in the morning, 
winter and summer, and repaired^ lantern In hand^ to 
his study^ which was in the church edifice. Here 
he remained till nine o'clock, as we learn from 
his own account, laboring on his '^ Commentaries," 
and as soon as the hour struck, such was his adhe- 
rence to method, he laid down his pen, though in 
the middle of a sentence. Thus, like Sir Walter 
Scott, his main studies were over before other men 
had fairly begun their day's work. This course he 
adopted to forestall any insinuations that he was 
infringing on time sacred to his ordinary pastoral 
duties. A night watchman once saw him applying 
his key, and not knowing his person or his habits 
kept a sharp eye on him, but his suspicions were 
soon dissipated by hearing his voice in prayer. The 
story has gained currency with variations and the 
student's jeopardy has been magnified, but the above 
is all that the family admit to be authentic. 

As a writer Mr. Barnes was remarkably clear 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 119 

and lucid. It was impossible to mistake his mean- 
ing. His name appears without any title, because 
he was conscientiously opposed to academic degrees. 
As a preacher it is sufficient to say that he stood at 
the head of his profession, in an arduous post, and 
under peculiarly trying circumstances, yet he com- 
manded to the last the respect and admiration of 
persons of intelligence and culture, both in and out 
of the learned professions. At the same time, his 
pulpit eiforts were not coldly intellectual and bar- 
ren. Though addressed to the judgment, and de- 
livered in a calm and unimpassioned manner, like 
those of his great predecessor. Dr. Wilson, they were 
solemn and impressive, and their faithfulness and 
pungency were attested by numerous revivals. Dr. 
Skinner said of him that he had not left his equal 
behind him."^^ 

Rev, Thomas H, Shinner^ D, D., Xi.Z)., w^as 
born inKorth Carolina in 1791. He graduated at 
Princeton College, and was licensed to preach in 
1812. He became co-pastor with Dr. Jane way in 
the Second church, Philadelphia. This connection 
lasted till 1816, when it was dissolved on account of 
theological differences. Dr. Skinner having espoused 
the views of the New School and Dr. Janeway 
being decidedly in favor of the Old. It is grat- 
ifying to know that in these differences of opinion 

* Wilson's " Presbyterian Almanac/' vi. 337 ; Gillett's '' His- 
tory ;" Dr. Herrick Johnson's memorial sermon ; " Life at Three- 
score " and *' Life at Threescore and Ten." 



120 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

there were no personal animosities involved^ but that 
the two distinguished clergymen remained friends 
to the end of their lives. Dr. Skinner quietly with- 
drew^ with fifty of the parishioners^ and organized 
the Arch Street church, which under his eloquent 
and efficient nainistrations speedily attained a high 
degree of prosperity. From this charge he was 
called to the professorship of sacred rhetoric, in 
Andover. In 1835 he became pastor of Mercer 
Street church, New York. After thirteen years of 
service there, he accepted the professorship of sa- 
cred rhetoric, pastoral theology and Church gov- 
ernment in Union Theological Seminary, New York, 
which position he retained and adorned to the close 
of his life. He died February 1, 1871, in the 
eightieth year of his age, in consequence of a severe 
cold which he caught while attending the funeral 
of his friend Albert Barnes, on a cold, wintry, 
snowy day about a month before. 

Dr. Skinner, whilst highly esteemed as a man of 
literary culture and mental power, commanded in 
a peculiar degree the love of those w^ith whom he 
came in contact. His artless simplicity, his cour- 
tesy, his piety and unworldliness, distinguished him 
even among good men, and strongly attracted the 
affections of those with whom he came in contact. 
He was a prominent leader of the New School party 
in the Church, but rejoiced in the reunion. As a 
preacher his style bore marks of culture and polish, 
not elaborate or artificial, but natural and easy. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 121 

The sword of the Spirit was not so wrapt up in the 
flowers of rhetoric as to hide its point. On the con- 
trary, his ministry was accompanied by numerous 
and powerful revivals. He was regarded as one of 
the best sermonizers in America. As a professor 
he was as much at home in the teacher's chair as 
he was in the pulpit. His students both respected 
and loved him.* 

Dr. Skinner^s published works were ^^ Preaching 
and Hearing/' " Hints to Christians/^ " Translation 
of Vinet's Pastoral Theology/' ^^Discussions in 
Theology/^ and numerous discourses. 

Rev. Thomas V. Ifoore, D, D., was born in New- 
ville, Pa., February 1, 1818. He was educated 
partly at Hanover CollegCj Ind., under the ven- 
erable Dr. Blythe, and partly at Dickinson Col- 
lege, Carlisle, where he graduated in 1838. His 
theological studies were commenced at Princeton 
in 1859. In the spring of 1842 he was installed 
pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Carlisle. 
In 1845 he resigned in consequence of some church 
diflBculties, and accepted a call to Greencastle. In 
1847 he became pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church, Richmond, Va. As a preacher, he was 
eloquent and attractive, though some might have 
thought his style too ambitious. On account of 
delicate health he accepted a call to the First Pres- 
byterian Church, Nashville, Tenn., in 1868, but re- 

■^ ''Life of Dr. Janeway," by his son; "Presbyterian/' for 
February, 1871. 



122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

mained there only a short time. He died August 
5, 1871. 

He was a voluminous writer. His published 
works were ^^Commentaries on the Prophecies of 
Haggai^ Zechariah and Malachi*/^ the prophets of 
the restoration; ^^The Last Words of Jesus ;'^ 
'^The Culdee Church ;'' ^^ Evidences of Christian- 
ity/^ and a number of occasional sermons. He 
was a contributor to the ^^ Methodist Quarterly/^ 
the '^ Richmond Eclectic Magazine/^ etc.^ besides 
sharing in the editorship of the '' Central Presby- 
terian. ^^'^ 

The Rev, Richard W, DlcMnson, D. D,, was bora 
in New York^ November 21, 1804. He graduated 
at Yale College in 1823, and abandoning the pur- 
pose of studying the law, entered Princeton Theo- 
logical Seminary. He was ordained an evangelist 
by the Second Presbytery of New York in 1827. 
He was settled over the Lancaster church, Penn- 
sylvania, November, 1829. Here his ministry was 
highly successful. His preaching was pungent and 
powerful, and a revival ensued ; but his voice fail- 
ing, he was compelled to resign in 1834. He spent 
some time in foreign travel, and on his return a 
variety of offers w^ere made him of pulpits and 
professorships. October 22, 1839, he was installed 
over Canal Street church. New York ; but after a 
few years his health again broke down, and he re- 
signed in 1845. After a rest of a dozen years, his 

* !Nevin's "Men of Mark of Cumberland Valley," p. 375. 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 123 

health was so much improved that he felt justified 
in again putting on the harness, and accepted a 
call to the Mount Washington Valley church, near 
Fordham, Xew York. Here he remained till his 
decease from paralysis, August 16, 1874, aged sixty- 
nine years. 

Dr. Dickinson was one of the rare examples 
of the gospel winning its trophies among " them 
of Csesar's household.'^ Nature had done much 
for him, culture more. The accessories of family 
and fortune would have favored him ; and had he 
chosen to enter the profession of the lav/, he might 
reasonably have anticipated its higliest honors and 
rewards. But he preferred the humble and less 
glittering path of the gospel ministry, and devoted 
himself faithfully and conscientiously to its self- 
denying duties, to which he sacrificed not only his 
prospects, but his health as well. ^^His record is 
on high.^^ 

Dr. Dickinson was a gentlemanly, courteous and 
dignified clergyman, perhaps a little fastidious in 
his tastes, but a sincere and honest man. He 
wielded a polished and graceful pen, and his 
sermons, which he read closely, were model com- 
positions. His published works were, besides nu- 
merous contributions to quarterly reviews and other 
periodicals, " Religion Teaching by Example,^^ '^ Life 
and Times of Howard,^^ '^ Responses from the Sa- 
cred Oracles,^^ " Resurrection of Christ,^' etc.* 
■^ Supplement to ^^ Princeton Review," p. 148. 



124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Rev, John Chambers, D. D., was born in Stew- 
artstown, Ireland^ December 19^ 1797, and was 
brought by bis parents to this country while an 
infant. After spending some years in Ohio, they 
removed to Bakimore, where the son was employed 
in mercantile life. At the age of seventeen he 
connected himself with the Associate Reformed 
church under Eev. John M. Duncan, and was by 
that eminent divine induced to prepare for the 
ministry, which he did under his direction. In 
May, 1825, he was installed pastor of the Ninth 
Associate Reformed church in Philadelphia. The 
congregation were w^orshiping in a house built on 
Thirteenth above Market street by Margaret Dun- 
can, Rev. Mr. Duncan^s mother, in pursuance of a 
vow made by her when in imminent peril of ship- 
wreck. In 1831 they removed to their present noble 
edifice at the corner of Broad and Sansom streets. 
When Mr. Duncan, about this time, renounced the 
jurisdiction of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian Church, into which the Associate Reformed, 
with Dr. Mason and others, had been merged. Dr. 
Chambers followed his example from sympathy 
with his teacher. His church was known as the 
First Independent church till October, 1873, when 
he and his cono^retration as^ain souo^ht and were 
cheerfully admitted to a connection wdth the Pres- 
byterian body. The reception of this large and 
influential church, with their esteemed pastor, was 
hailed at the time as an event of the most inter- 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 125 

esting kind. By order of the Presbytery of Phil- 
adelphia^ the style of the church was changed, in 
honor of the pastor, to ^^The Chambers Presby- 
terian Church.^^ 

In May, 1875, the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. 
Chambers^ pastorate was joyously celebrated, on 
which occasion he delivered a historical sermon, 
containing, among other items of interest, the state- 
ment that he had received three thousand five hun- 
dred and eighty-six members into the church, of 
whom twelve hundred are the number constituting 
the present actual membership ; that between thirty 
and forty young men had entered the gospel min- 
istry; that he had married two thousand three 
hundred and twenty-nine couples, and had attended 
between four thousand and five thousand funerals. 
He had preached on an average three sermons a 
week, which, for fifty years, would amount to a 
grand total (allov/ing necessary deductions) of more 
than seven thousand sermons. Dr. Chambers was 
no friend to sensational novelties of any sort, yet 
he had an extraordinary hold on the young people, 
and his weeknight prayer-meetings, with an attend 
ance of three hundred, were a standing wonder. 

It is due to truth to state, however, that his pastoral 
career was not uniformly smooth. During the late 
unhappy collision with the South his opposition to 
all war, joined with his pronounced political senti- 
ments, led to the withdrawal of some of his elders 
and others who could not see eye ^io eye with him ; 



126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

but this action was not embittered by any personal 
dislikes. 

Dr. Chambers' conspicuous attribute was power. 
For the sake of that commanding influence which 
he exerted over the masses^ he deliberately sacri- 
ficed book-learning and minute criticism. Bold 
and frank in the expression of his opinions^ even 
those who differed with him could not but respect 
and admire his courage. He fearlessly attacked 
the crying abuses^ vices and errors of the day^ and 
was sometimes threatened with personal violence 
on account of his plainness of speech. He scourged 
the men of Succoth wath thorns. Like John Knox, 
he called a spade a spade. His majestic person, his 
leonine mien, his clarion voice, his unquestionable 
sincerity, added w^eight to the fulminations of the 
pulpit. All that saw" him, all that heard him, bore 
witness, voluntarily or involuntarily, that ^^this 
w^as a man." Like the prophets of the olden time, 
he only lived for the salvation of souls, and his 
sole concern was to preach the preaching that the 
Lord bade him. 

Four brief months after the remarkable ovation 
of his fiftieth anniversary, tow^ard midnight on the 
22d of September of the present year, 1875, his 
useful life was brought to a close. The foundation 
for the malady that took him off had been laid by 
partial paralysis two years previously. Perhaps it 
is not too much to say that no man could have died 
in the city of Philadelphia more sincerely or more 



SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. 127 

widely lamented by all classes of society and all 
denominations of Christians. 

My task is done. It has been laborious^ but it 
has been a labor of love. One only regret attend- 
ing it is that the work has been so imperfectly per- 
formed^ and that for want of time some names have 
been necessarily omitted which I Avould gladly have 
retained. The risino- sun illuminates onlv the hio^h- 
est mountain peaks^ leaving the rest in shadow. 
To a similar course I have been compelled by the 
strict instructions of the Synod. Imperfect as this 
necrological list is, it reveals a host of distinguished 
ministers of the gospel of whose learning and vir- 
tues any Synod might be proud. Rather are we 
not called to exercise deep gratitude to the great 
Head of the Church for his bounteous ascension 
gifts, and should we not, in reliance on divine 
grace, sedulously imitate such bright examples? 



INDEX TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



NAME. DEATH. PAGE 

Eobert Smith 1790 48 

George Dnffield 1790 48 

James Sproat 1793 49 

John Blair Smith 1799 50 

John Craighead 1799 51 

John Ewing 1802 53 

Patrick Allison 1802 54 

Charles Msbet 1804 55 

John Blair Linn 1804 57 



128 INDEX. 

NAME. DEATH. PAGE 

Eobert Cooper 1805 58 

John Kin- 1811 59 

Nathaniel Irwin 1811 60 

Eobert Davidson 1812 61 

James Ina^lis 1820 63 

John McKnight 1823 64 

William Ashraead 1829 65 

James P. Wilson 1830 66 

Ebenezer Dickey 1831 67 

Joseph Patterson 1831 68 

JohnGlendy 1832 69 

John McMillan 1833 71 

William Nevins 1835 72 

James Patterson 1837 74 

Joshua Williams 1838 75 

John Breckenridge 1841 76 

Samuel G. V/inchester 1841 78 

William Paxton , 1845 79 

Ashbel Green 1848 80 

Henry E. Wilson 1849 82 

Eobert Cathcart 1849 83 

Corielius C. Cuyler 1850 84 

Archibald Alexander 1851 85 

Daniel L. Carroll 1851 88 

David McConaughy 1852 88 

Eiciard Webster 1856 89 

Jacob J. Janeway 1858 91 

William McCalla 1859 92 

William Neill 1860 94 

Francis Herron 1860 95 

Nicholas Murray 1861 97 

Ezra Stvles Ely 1861 99 

Benjamin J. Wallace 1862 101 

John McDowell 1863 102 

Thcmas Brainerd 18o6 104 

William M. Eogle.s 1867 107 

William E. De Witt , 1867 108 

George Daffield 1867 110 

George Junkin 1868 112 

Albert Barnes 1870 115 

Thomas H. Skinner .- 1871 119 

Thomas V. Moore 1871 121 

Eichard W. Dickinson :... 1874 122 

John Chambers 1875 124 



C/A'-e^ 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



Synod of Philadelphia. 

By E. M. PATTERSON, 

PASTOK OP THE SOOTH PBESBYTERIAN CHDBCH, PHILADELPHIA ; 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

OF 

By the Rev. ROBERT DAVIDSON, D.D. 

k^ 

) 



PHILADELPHIA : 
PKESBYTERTAN BOAKD OF PUBLICATION, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 



8ABBATH-8CH00L LIBRARIES 

AND 

The Pkesbyterian Board of Publication would call your 
attention to its well-perfected arrangements 

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Comnoittees of Sabbath-Schools will be gladly received and waited 
upon ; or if this is not convenient, a Catalogue of Books now in the 
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the books desired, the amount of money to be expended, and how 
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Should any so sent be found unsuitable, they may be returned to 
the Board, and others will be sent in their place. The aim is to give 
perfect satisfaction in this important part of Sabbath-school work. 

The Board keeps on sale, or will furnish to order, the most reliable 
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The Board also offers a general assortment of Theological and 
Religious Literature by the best authors and of the latest issues. 

In ordering, address 

JOHN A. BLACK, Business Superintendent, 
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

t334 ChestmU Street, Bhilndelphin. 






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